DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 116 170 CS 002 334

AUTHOR Waterman, David C.; Gibbs, Vanita M.TITLE Reading as a Thinking Process; Proceedings of the

Annual Reading Conference (5th, Indiana StateUniversity, Terre Haute, June 12-13, 1975).

INSTITUTION Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute. Curriculum Researchand Deielopment Center.

PUB DATE 75NOTE 71p.; Charles D. Hopkins, Director,' Curriculum

Research and Development Center School of Education,Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809(Write for price)

EDRS PRICE M17-$0.76 HC-$3.32 plus PostageDESCRIPTORS Abstract Reasoning; Conference Reports; *Creitive

Reading; Creative Thinking; *Critical Reading; i

Critical Thinking; *Decoding (Reading); *InterpretiveReading; Poetry; Reading Skills; Recall(Psychological); Teaching Techniques; *ThoughtProcesses

ABSTRACTThinking skills in children, effectively developed

through reading, were emphasiXed at this-reading conference. Threetypes of thinking skills linked to Ireading are: decoding symbols fromthe printed page, seeking factual meaning through recall; readinginterpretively, understanding cause and effect reasoning or seekingthe main idea of sentences; and creative-critical reading, examiningthe author's intent or language or feeling the mood of a story. Inthis booklet,-the techniques and ideas for developing thinking skillsand abilities are described in the following presentations:"Personkind, Meaning Maker" by William H. Roth; "What Is Poetry? WhoCares?" by Sheron Dailey Pattison; "Private Logic in Children's.Behavior and /thinking" by Reece Chaney; "Readiness IS a ThinkingProcess" by Jessica Welch; "The Think Tank of Reading or_Ta theBarrel Pull?" by Robert Pabst; "Thinking Skills and Reading" byRichard Biberstine; "Systematic Approach to Reading Improvement(Sari)" by Geneva Ross; and "Language and Thought: Contributions tothe Reading Process" by Eldonna L. Evertts. (JM)

* **********************************************************************Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished

* materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effbrt ** to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal ** reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality ** of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available ** via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not* respondible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions ** supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. ** **********************************************************************

Proceedings

of the

1975

Fifth AnnuaV1

Reeding Conference

June 12-13

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THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRO-.: 00010 INRCILv AS RECEIVED PION

THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATIONAIIING I/ POINTS OP VIEW OR OPINIONSSTATED 00 NO/ NECESSARILYseNT es 'KIM. NATIONAL oNSTI '

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READING AS ATHINKING PROCESS

CURRICULUM RESEARCHAND DEVELOPMENT CENTER

2

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,

INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

TERRE HAUTE

THE CURRICULUM RESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENT CENTER

School of Education, Indiana State University

The Curriculum Research and DevelopmentCenter of Indiana State University provides schoolsystems the opportunity to secure aid, encourage-ment, and cooperation in curriculum developmentprojects. it coordinates the participation of Uni-versity personnel engaged in curriculum work, pro-vides information concerning curriculum develop-ment, and initiates and sponsors curriculum re-search projects. It is the contact point where publicschools initiate inquiries regarding curriculum andacts as a vehicle for communication between eleinen-tary and secondary schools and the University. Al-though the CRDC operates as an agency of theSchool of Education, it represents all departments

;of the University engaged- in curriculum develop-Inent projects.

Services of the Center are of these major types:Consultant servicesThe Center makes availablespecialists in various curriculum areas to aid incurriculum development.. This is on a contract basisand can be adjusted to the needs of the particulartask.

LeadershipIn the Center, University personneland others have an agency through which curricu-lum change can be advocated and other opportuni-ties to exercise leaderiihip provided.

Workshop and ConferencesOne function of theCurriculum Research and Development Center isthe planning and directing of on-campus- conferencesand workshops as well as those carried on in a schoolsystem engaged in curriculum development.

Printed MaterialsThe Center produces coursesof study, bibliographies, and ,similar materials.Research and ExperimentationThe Center pro-vider an environment which encourages. researchthrough supplying materials and services neededfor experimentation, providing an atmosphere forcommunication and sharing. of ideas, and. aiding Inacquiring funb for worthy projects.

David T. Turney Charles D. HopkinsDean, School of Education Director

S

it

The material for this bulletin was organized by:

David C. Waterman

Professor of EducationIndiana State University

,Vanifa,M. Gibbs

Professor of EducationIndiana State University.

Published by:

The Curriculum Research and,Development Center

SChool of EducationIndiana State UniversityTerre Haute, IN 47809

1

1975

ii

ro

FOREWORD

Thinking skills in children are effectively developed throughreading. A number of reading authorities write about reading on threedifferent levels: recall, interpretive and creative-critical. Roma

Gans effectively describes these levels as reading the lines, readingbetween the lines, and reading beyond the lines. When one decodes thesymbols-from the printed page seeking factual meaning through recall,one reads the lines. When one understands cause and effect reasoningor seeks the main idea of sentences, one is reading interpretively.When'one reads to'examine the author's intent or his language or thelogic of the selection,-or.feels the mood of a story, this.is creative-critical reading.

The types of thinking skills described were given emphasis and aplace of importance at this conference. Techniques and ideas for thedevelopment of thinking skills and abilities are described in each

presentation. To each of these eight speakers we.are thankful for thestimulation which they have given us. We hope that we can provoke thethinking abilities of children more effectively as a result of what theyhave given us.

To the co-directors of this Fifth Annual Reading Conference, DavidWaterman and Vanita Gibbs, goes a large measure of thanks for guiding isto a series of meetings with talented people who can help us become moreeffective teachers of reading. We become more effective teachers whenwe are able to encourage our students to, examine what they read, think,and live so that their lives may be richer and more filled with meaning.

William G. McCarthyChairperson, Departmentof Elementary Education

Z)

A

Eldonna L. Evertts, speaker, andWilliam G. McCarthy, Chairperson,Department of Elementary Education

If I supply you with a thought, youmay remember it and you may not.But if I can make you think for your-self, I indeed have added to yourstature.

Elbert Hubbard

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

OFFICIAL PROGRAM vi ..

/ OPENING ADDRESS

PER NKIND, MEANING MAKERby! William H. Hoth 1

PAPERS DELIVERED

WHAT IS POETRY? WHO CARES?by Sheron Dailey Pattison 15

23

RIVATE LOGIC IN CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOR AND THINKINGby. Recce- Chaney

READINESS IS A THINKING PROCESSby Jessica Welch 30

THE THINK TANK OF READING OR IS THE BARREL FULL?by Robert Pabst 35

THINKING SKILLS AND READINGby Richard Biberstine 46

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO READING IMPROVEMENT (SARI)

54by Geneva Ross

CLOSING ADDRESS

LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE READING PROCESSby Eldonna L. Evertts 58

1

READING AS ATHINKING PROCESS

PROGRAM OFFIFTH ANNUAL READING CONFERENCE

THURSDAY, June 12, 1975

9:30-11:00 a.m. Hulman Civic University Center - Room C

Presiding:David C. Waterman

Conference Co-chairman

Welcome:Harriet D. Darrow, DeanSummer Sessions and Academic ServicesIndiana State University

Introduction of Speaker:Vanita GibbsConference Co-chairman

Speaker:

William H. Moth, Professor of EducationWayne State University"Personkind, Meaning Maker"

vi

'1:30-2:20 p.m. - Room A

Sheron Dailey Pattison"What is Poetry?Who Cares?"

- Room B

Reece Chaney"Private Logic in Children's Behavior and Thinking"

- Room E

Jessica Welch"Readiness is a Thinking Process"

2:30-3:20 p.m. - Room A

Robert Pabst"The Think Tank of Reading orIs the Barrel Full?"

- Room B

Richard Biberstine"Thinking Skills and Reading"

- Room D

Geneva Ross"Systematic Approach to ReadingImprovement (SARI)"

FRIDAY, June 13, 1975

9:30-11:00 a.m. Room C

Introduction of Speaker:LoranBraught, DirectorReading Workshop

Speaker:Eldonna L. EverttsAssociate Professor or EducationUniversity of Illinois"Contributions of Languageand Thought to the ReadingProcess"

i

vii

4.

Professors Virginia Mitchell, Claudia Baxter,Millie Vaughn and Vanita Gibbs chat withWilliam H. Hoth, speaker.

Language is he dress of thought.

Samuel Johnson

viii

Uv

PERSONKIND, MEANING MAKER

William H. Hoth

Dear Reader:

What follows were originally "remarks." They were

meant keynote a summer conference, set a tone, get

teachers reflecting about what they do.

Later, taped and transcribed, the remarks were

converted to printOo`be looked at. If you try listening

a; you read, you may find it easier to follow.

2

, I would like to begin with ground rules. it has always been part'of morality in America -- we are supposed to be decent to each other.

/ It is basic to our religious background. But now by law, you are notsupposed to mistreat people. You are not supposed to call women birdsor chicks or gala or you gals, or say "Go get the 'Coffee"; or "Youwouldn't understand this because it's logical," or any of the other hos-tile things that we, in the other sex, get accused of having said allthe time.

My title uses ilersonkind; a non-existent word. Everything I naveever studied about persons is called mankind. Teachers talked aboutthe "history of man" and "in the long view of mankind's perpetual movetoward"....and we always assumed they meant women. Well, that's allchanged in the last 10 to 15 years. We have had a revolution. And nowhave new reasons for not offending people. So how do you lay down arule in which you believe, knowing it may offend someone? Therapistsadvise that you go ahead and state your conviction. So here goes.

I can give you 10 reasons for not smoking. I won't bore you withthem. But it would please me if you didn't smoke while I was with you.I am glad to be here. I learned so far--the name of this place isoTerre Haute to rhyme with boat; it is not "Terra Hot." But on to mytopic. I read in the New York Times that Mrs. Frankfurter died at 86.Her husband was a Justice in the Supreme Court and one of the mostarticulate spokesmen of the Court. His wife was supposed to be terriblybright and was said to be the,leveler that kept him from going off thedeep end. She was asked about his speechmaking. She said, "He had twomistakes; (1) he digresses often, and (2) he comes back to the. point."Your Point, the title of this conference, is "Reading as a ThinkingProcess." I'd be happier if it were "Reading as a Thinking and FeelingProcess." Thanks to Mr. Bloom, we have the taxonomy of educationalobjectives in two volumes, one called "cognitive objectives" and theother "affective objectives." And what it means is, thinking and feel-ing. Despite the fact that in the preface Bloom wrote, "I do not intendto suggest that these are separate things." Despite that, all kinds ofpeople in America and mainly teachers have gone right ahead and actedas if they are two separate things. Because after all, they are printedin two separate books. So they must be two separate things. As a re-sult, we have people telling me that it's time now for the "affective"part of the curriculum, as if somehow there wasn't any feeling going onduring arithmetic or during phonics or during physical education orlunch hour. I am a great friend of trying to look at education so thatwe keep what is called cognitive and affective related and I am goingto be talking about that this morning.

Some of you have heard about Ken Goodman, one of my colleagues. Ifyou don't know about his work and if you are just starting out in edu-cation, let me alert you to his name. He has been thinking about thereading process for about 12 to 15 years and alerts teachers to look atreading in its relationship to knowledge about how people learn language.All of us learn language before we ever come into contact with any

3

formal instruction.. That is, we learn our language at our "mothen:sknee and other joints" (thanks, Don Lloyd) and all of that learning isfor one of the most complex experiences we ever have. Much of whatGoodman has been doing is to look at all that learning that occurred"naturally" and see ve!at kinds of insight we can take from there as weintroduce children to reading and writing. One of the specific out-'Comes Goodman has found is that sometimes children, in making what arecalled mistakes in reading,.are bringing to the reading process notJust differences in sound, not just different dialects, but also othermatters like differences in grammatical structure, usage, and vocabu-lary. As we deal with children whose backgrounds are different fromours, we have to be aware that they may have a little different soundsystem, a little different set of meanings and a little different notionof how grammar works. There is now much investigation in this area re-lated to how we teach language arts and save "divergence" in our popu-latibn. We all have to figure out how we relate to different groups,as we extend the base of schooling and bring everybody to school.

I teach in Detroit, where throughout the metropolitan area allteachers have to meet this challenge. To deal with that one, as wellas others, I ask students what each one will do, next semester, withthe newspaper. For I teach a course "Using the Newspaper for Learning."Many of the students are elementary school teachers who use the paperfor teaching reading. They invent activities that floor me. I am im-

pressed with the imagination, the color, the stimulation, the motivation.Sometimes I wish I were in third grade so I could play all the games,do all the exercises and have,a ball, because it's exciting stuff. Butwhen I ask, Why are you doing that?, What's being learned and how?, Iam not so impressed. Last summer one very upset Master's candidate,told me, "You can't ask me that, I already have my certificate." Well

maybe that's part of our role as university professors in the ivorytower to ask why we are doing what we are doing.

Most of you arc a lot younger than I am. You know best how yourgeneration approaches learning. In the generation of college studentsafter World War II, there was a bristling, show-me attitude. I recall

then, we never let a professor talk for more than about 10 minutes be-fore we would pop up a hand and ask, "How do you know that?" And theprofs were pretty sharp and handled cur "curiosity" and we were en-couraged to ask Wiy? I don't know about your generation. I taught the

silent 50's in upstate New York and lived through the rebellious 60'sin Michigan. Some of you went to college in the 60's--Kent State andall that. .The marches down Main Street, the pot, and the gay libera-tion movement and more. For all the drama, there was a lot of closed-mindedness. Some people were deeply upset with what they felt was wrongand there seemed to be no channel to deal with it. The result was

anger that erupted all over the place., In classes we had petitions. Westill have some of this. Students send letters to the Ombudsman andoccasionally "sit-in" in offices.

4

What is the generation of the 70's like for students? We have hadWatergate--a national political example of a widespread phenomenon inAmerica. A rule that says: If you are powerful enough, morality can beset aside. It is not just the phenomenon of a given president or party;it is a major question in contemporary America--about what is true. Infact, it's an old problem. Pontius Pilate sought the answer and we stillface the dilemma in our society, affluent, striving and material minded.I am going to deal with it at the end of my talk when I show you someads. I will talk about language, about whether or not a sentence is agroup of words containing a complete thought, a subject and a predicate,and if that is what we are telling children and they find other evidencein magazines at home, maybe we are in trouble. And, if there is Milne,I'll note even broader moral problems in ads.

There is evidence now that two sides of the brain operate. T oseof you who are trying to take notes, I wish a lot of luck. Becaus I

have been told that I cannot be taken notes on easily - -which is a icesentence--and part of that reason is that I like to set up an idea andthen shadowbox it. I defend myself: Margaret Mead lectures like hatand Marshall McLuhan lectures like that in Canada. Ciardi, a po -

critic for the Saturday Review, lectures like that often, and mucdramatic activity starts that way.

The people who use outlines are coming out of the left-hand Side of

t

the brain. That's the recent research. There have been two arti leslately; one in Saturday Review, one in Media and Methods. Both d alwith the research that is coming now into the popular educational world,the research that indicates that there are two sides of the brain leftand right, and that they have different functions. Much of this researchcame from the study of left-handedness and some of the problems hatpeople get in who come at writing differently.

The left-hand side of the brain for most of us is the cognitiveside; it is the sequential, chronological side. It helps us order things

t

in rows--read plane schedules, have A and B in our outlines, tak notesand have things tidied up. The other side of the brain is in ch rge ofmetaphor and analogy, intuition and imagination. Some people, p rticu-larly in media, aesthetics, humanities and the arts are screaming--moreright side of the brains More metaphor; more analogy; more coming to-gether, more weeping and gnashing of teeth, more prayer, more feeling.And that's not bad.

And then the other people say,That doesn't build bridges. Thatdon't sell cereal, etc. So you have two points of view. What's thisgot to do with you as learners? If you're coming out of the left-handside of the brain basically, there is a good chance that you like every-thing in neat order and that you would like it to march right along soyou can take notes. I have been told, in various student evaluations,that that doesn't work with me. It has not always been reported con-structively in sweet, dulcet tones. So, if you are a little put offwondering what's he talking about, that is the reason--you've got to get

1.i

over on the other side of your brain and call on it a little bit andlet your intuition hang out. If you do, you may grab the general gistof what I am going to say. I will try to say it neatly and cleanly forthose who want to write down a sentence or you can buy the proceedingsand see if in reading it, it makes any sense.

I was going to talk about delivery eyetem, which seems to me topresuppose a package load that can be conveyed or shipped. I don'tthink that's how learning is. How do you think learning is? Some ofyou probably are at that point in your study where learning is whateverit says in the book learning is, and that's a good start. But I inviteyou to think about what learning's really like in terms of your ownexperience.

Have you learned anything lately? I learned at 46 years old touse dental floss from a dentist who was a compulsive teacher. I thoughthe was an idiot, and I said, "I'm too old for dental floss," and he said,"Shut up and pay attention." I learned then to use dental floss but Irecall when I went to college, we had a fellow who used dental floss--Iwas 24 years old. Had teeth that could bite pizza--anything, appleswithout coming out with the apple. I used to laugh at this fellow usingthe floss. But :ay dentist twenty years later insisted I learn it sothat my children would see it as a model for the care of their teeth. Iremember specifically learning and I remember why I learned. He con-vinced me that there was motivation for this act.

I've had hundreds of such experiences about learning. I wrote aterm paper in college on the labor movement in the United States. Mygrandfather was a labor organizer. It never occurred to me when I wascoming here that this is where Eugene Debs is\ from. But now I'll neverever forget it because I finally had the expe ience when someboej said

rtl

Eugene Debs in my ear. That's how I learn. y having it happen to me.For me, learning is participation. We as lea ners reject what isn'tuseful. Later when we need it, we come back.

That's what the whole continuing educatio thing is about. I hadseniors in college come to me who got jobs as cuaches in Long Island. Ihad them originally as freshmen. They said, "Hey prof, you had sometips about making and writing in that freshmad course. Can you givethem to us in a hurry?" Not until they were senors did they realizethat they had to give a Monday evening talk to k ep parents on theirside. When do you learn? What about your studen s? How do we teachso that the experience seems here and now? How d we make sure there'smeaning in our activity? I am not talking about cabulary lists andI am not talking about the use of the dictionary. I am talking aboutconducting ourselves with children, adults, whoeve it is that we workwith, in such a way that our activities always have,

1 5

Five little stories make the point.

(1)

(2)

The first is a stupid one about my own behavior. I

have three sons; one learned to read reading comicbooks, the middle one I am going to talk about andthe third learned to read watching TV. The middleboy had trouble so I was'going to help him withreading, using the Bloomfield-Basehardt text-with "can.ran, tan." The child is supposed to learn that theinitial consonant structure varies and you keep thevowel structure the same; and then the other way around--pot, pat, pet--where you change the vowel and keeptheconsonants the same. I was drilling him on it athome. After about 20 minutes of sweat on both ourparts, he looked at me very lovingly and said, "Dad."I said, "What?" "Are there any stories in.the back?"

In 1972 I had a principal-in one of my classes whoseschool purchased a programmed textbook on cassettes.It wasn't really a textbook; it was a-sound thing thatwas tightly programmed. Put out by people who feltthat you should control learning. The teacher was-notallowed to answer questions or help anybody. It started-out with beep tones on the cassette -- "beep, beep, bop."The children had a worksheet. When it said "bop," theywere to make a slash. It was based on the best we knowabout how rats learn. What happened was that thissupervisor went to school one day and the teachers wereall excited. They called him over because 10 or 12little girls from the class were hiding, huddled togetherin the girls' toilet.

(3) One school in metropolitan Detroit in this age of en-lightenment has made an item analysis of the Iowa test.It has identified, for each child, a specific set ofspecific skills on control of sibilants, initial sounds,vowels, etc., and made a diagnostic profile Chart andset up stations. A computer analyzes how much exposureis needed by which child on which item. There is an "S"station, a "M", "P", etc. At this school, they have aschool psychologist who patrols the halls to gather upthe children who seem unable to accommodate themselvesto this "individualized learning."

(4) In my course in newspaper work, we have exciting ideas.Some come from Canadians. They draw people from appli-ances in ads. ,An icebox gets a voice; a stove too. Thechildren write the dialogue. "Burr, it's cold in here.Who shut the door?" "I wish somebody would come in andget a glass of milk so I could read my paper." And theelectric knife says, "Cecil, Cecil, Cecil, etc.," andthey act it out. Its great. The children speak, look

it)

(5)

and move naturally and It's a joy to see and be with them.

And there is a school that has one of the lowest readingscores in the State of Michigan. An all black school ina very run-down neighborhood. There, a couple of teachersare having students mike books, taking an initial letterand cutting other words out of the newspaper to teachphonics. They don't have all the money that the computerschool does to have an "S" station; they are doing,itwith the newspaper. And in that room, where these chil-dren are having all 'these phonics, many are on the floorwrestling--that's their response to this exciting activity.

Now, what's wrong? Why would that get me worried? Why would itget anybody worried? I walked into a class at Wayne University the otherday and saw a complete lesson plan on the board for the initial sound of"F" with motivation, delivery and assessment and there were experiencedteachers in the class with me who were dismayed. Why were they dismayed?Why am I upset? And what have I learned from my son? That is, if mean-ing is missing in whatever we do, and specifically in reading, someportion of the student body will be turned off.

Uhy is that so? Suzanne Langer, back in 1947, wrote a couple ofbooks', Philosophy in affew Key and Feeling and Form: A Philosophy ofArt. She hypothesized that the search for meaning is almost instinctive.That is, if you leave people alone on a desert island, they will make ameaning out of it. They will try to make sense of it. They are goingto say, God doesn't love us, or God chose us, or they are going to say,there is no God and it's nature. But somehow or other, they are goingto explain it to each other. They are just not going to behave like abunch of rats and run around and build huts and see if there is anycheese left. They will do a little of that--they've got to. That'swhat Lord of the Flies is about. Got to have that bunch. But you alsohave to have the other bunch that makes sense and meaning. If we aregoing to reach all the students in any kind of activity, we must rec-ognize that at all points in the game, anything we do has to be meaning-ful

This is not a new message. Dewey said it. The University in whichI work is finally getting around to saying it in academic terms. Hereare our new objectives for the training of reading teachers. "All

teachers are to understand that comprehension is the essence of thereading act." (It reads a little bit like one of the Ten Commandments.)"Teachers are to understand that reading acquisition is related to lan-guage acquisition. Understand that the search for meaning is themotivating force in reading and reading development."

These objectives raise questions for us on how much time can wespend on isolated activities, on dealing with the pieces and parts ofreading? How much drill can we have on phonics or isolated vocabularyor isolated anything? How much can the average learner sustain nothaving anything full of meaning, according to his life? Ask yourself,how much of that can you take?

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Then think about how persistent meaning is--in religion, insociety, in play, in behavior of children the persistent search forrole identification. What is it to be "daddy," or "mom." The wholebusiness of sex stereotyping comes up in this context. What do we leadchildren to believe they ought to expect to be? Just a part of the con-cern for meaning, which in a sense is the most persistent variable inlearning. One of the truths is that if we do not deal with meaningin their school experience, the children thatve call our learners aregoing to go and get their meaning someplace else, and we've got lots ofcompetition.

I'm going to deal with advertising if there is time. A lot ofpeople have intended meanings. That is, we tell the children how it is.Parents are full of intended meanings. The church is full of intendedmeanings and the American Legion is and all kinds of organized peoplethat intend everybody else to mean what they mean. The other side ofthe coin is the individual experience of perceiving what the messagereally means to me.

Carl Sandburg said very wisely, "How come the children always putbeans in their ears when the one thing we told them was, don't put beansin your ears." Anybody who has taught more than 10 minutes knows what Iam talking about. I used to laugh--I worked in college and we had a de-partment head read the fire drill to us. And he said, "In case of fireI want you to pay attention." He was an alcholic and all the time as hewas reading, I thought, oh my God, somebody better grab him if there isa fire.

We have these expressions, "tell it like it is;" "tell it how it is."I have heard English teachers debate whether how it is, like it is, orsince it is or whether it is a relative pronoun--yet the important thingis that there is always the reality. I love the expression in the realworld." All kinds of people say to me, real world, as if what I do isn'treal. I buy and sell, pay more tax than many corporate executives. Youknow, they are all part of the real world. Dreams are part of the realworld; in fact, the whole world of dreaming and feeling may be so mucha part of the important world that if we don't come to grips with it,it may be a far more serious Problem than the "real" world. Because theProblem about how people feel about each other is a problem. Check thedivorce rate, check the drop-out rate in schools. There is plenty ofevidence that a lot-of people don't feel very right. We have trans-actional analysis, alpha waves, encounter groups, and all kinds of stuff.The whole thing, taken collectively, is a concern for trying to feelbetter about being. In a world in which all kinds of people areshouting intended meanings at us, each of us has our own individualresponse.

I like to illustrate this with, "Pepsi has a lot to give." Ycu allknow that...0K. Pepsi has a lot to give. The intended meaning is quiteclear, is it not? Pepsi gives you youth, Joy, frolic and fun, gratifi-cation, party-time, good rews, good spirit, have a good day: That's theintended message. Buy Pepsi for the good life. What's the scientific,

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factual supported-by-evidence analysis of the phrase, Pepsi has a lot togive? first of all, anyone in language arts can tell you there is anundetermined item, because it doesn't say a lot of what. Because itdoesn't say a lot of what, it allows the perceiver to fill in, supportedon the tube by picture, movement, color and all that other stuff goinginto the left side of the brain. They hope to hue:ale or lay on you orintend or faster, whatever word you want, their intended meaning.

But what's the scientific analysis of Pepsi, what's it made up of?Does it give you a lift? Yes, it does. Because there is sugar. So,

it is true that you do get a physical pick-up from the sugar. Whatelse do you get? Water. Carbonated. What does carbonated water mean?It means putting gas and bubbles into the water so that it will have aneffervescent effect which will fill you full of bubbles and give youthat warm feeling. You can also get it from baking soda. To put itsimply, one of the things that Pepsi has a lot to give is, gas.

Row, what's your individual response to this? You say, well that'skind of a joke. That's the backbone of the American economy, and we allknow that salesmen are never exactly honest, and we don't ask that ofthem, and we can all tolerate a little bit of distortion of the fact,and that's quite all right. If you don't like it, don't buy Pepsi.

Another possible reading is to take a look at the whole world ofadvertising, which 25, certainly 50, years ago did not play a majorrole in a young learner's life. I belong to the generation that canremember when there wasn't television, and that really dates me. Someof you can never remember that time. You may not even believe it. Yousay, that's like Little Red Riding Hood--you made that up. Honest toGod, friends, there was a time in America when there was no television.There was radio, and radio had all the promotions, invented the soapads...very primitive techniques which the German government used todevelop their propaganda.

Do you mind if I look at some ads with you and show you what I'mtalking about in terms of language, in terms of feeling. I don't knowif any of you would use ads to teach reading, but I'd like you to lookat commercial ads that are taken out of magazines. I am in debt to aman named Ferrario, a graduate student at Wayne, who did a project ondistortion from a mathematical point of view. He dealt with all thethings that are taught in math that are regularly distorted in advertis-ing. I want to deal with the difference between what some people arepushing at us in meanings and the meanings that are real and true forus and whether or not this means anything for us in terms of the picturesin boys' and girls' heads when they come to school, as a result of allthe exposure to the media. As a matter of fact, they are in some ofyour heads, because some of you are products of the television world.

Some people think Ishould not do this, because I should notquestion commercialism, but I'm going to do it anyhow. It is my con-tention that the force of advertising is so strong in America, that itcontains a value system that I for one an unhappy with, and I at leastwould life you to examine it. For openers, the language standards which

10

we teach in school are not supported in the language of advertising. Thelanguage of advertising is accompanied by color and very strong appealto primitive needs--food, sex, comfort and approval. You've had a lotof speakers tell you that television's got something to do with thereading. I want to suggest that you at least join in and grab somestuff from that world, bring it into the classroom, talk about it, beginto work with students in developing values and critical standards. Maybethey'll end up with minds and maybe they won't, but at least they'llhave something that will arm them to work with media experience.

Recently I read that in the next presidential election we will getaddressed to our home addresses, letters personalized as to the servicestation and grocery stores in our neighborhoods which will be computertyped to look like regular typing and they will contain politicalviews. This is already being done in certain magazines where nationalproduct ads are inserted locally to make it look as if the product isclose by. It's very likely that this whole mass approach is going tobe used. I say, in passing, it did not surprise me that Mr. Haldeman'straining was at one of the largest advertising agencies in the UnitedStates. There is a different ethic in the advertising world. But thenagain, maybe it isn't different. Maybe we have it in schools. We'vegot reading reports and for some kids it's not fun at all. We keeptelling them reading is fun and we have slogans on the wall that say,"reading is fun" and conferences on "reading is fun." Is it fun?For them? You see, we always have to check out with the individualstudent's experience. But let's look at some ads.

(Here slides of ads are shown)

(Slide) Margarine--every 15 seconds a Doctor recom-mends Margarine. Please raise your hand if you be-lieve this. (No one:T Under what conditions could it be a simple,direct statement of truth? If a doctor said every 15 seconds, "Irecommend Margarine." The original statement is nottrue: we all know it is not true. Do all our children know it's nottrue? Did it cause you to stop buying ? Is this alie? Or is this just a little tinkering? Is it OK? (Slide) "Somepeople use our razor, but not our blade." "They're half right." And,what's the other part of that? They're half wrong, they shouldn't usetheir razor.

(Slide) "Repairs at no extra charge." Here's a phone that is sowell made that when your $250 sheep dog grabs ahold of the wire andpulls it out, he cannot destroy it. Just call on the service man, for asmall service charge of $22.50 plus mileage plus toll calls plus over-charge plus utility increases. How many of you have a dog that is like-ly to bite a telephone cord? We've got one. All right, this talks toyou. It is possible that somewhere in America that somebody looks atthat ad and says that's true and right. How many of you find the adappealing? Sure, wny? Because Americans like dogs. And the fellowthat wrote this ad analyzed various things and found out what appeals to

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large numbers of people. They often bring in psychiatrists. The ad is

very thought out. What does it mean to us? It means we're dealing withchildren who have looked at this and have been attracted to the dog andhave read the print. And you see down at the bottom it says, "We hearyou"? How many of you feel that way about your local telephone office?

Have a happy day! I don't know about you, but when the girl sayscharge or cash, I look at her and think, hcw dare you? And then when

she says, "Have a happy day," I say, "Same to you and your mother." I

mean, what is this, everybody in America thinking that I'm fair gamefor "have a happy day." I decide whether I'm going to have a happy day.I don't mind an occasional person, wife, child, good student, saying Ihope you have a good time, have a nice trip when they sort of mean it:But "have a happy day," now means what in America? Go away, it means,I'm done with you. Next customer. "We hear you." I wonder if we hear

you? Notice the simple language, the clarity, the sharpness. Where did

"we hear you" come from? From television. It's the kind of short,quick,breezy, touch and run of phraseology that is characteristic of all tele-vision commercials.

(Slide) "You can take this shrimp and make a good dinner for two; ora great dinner for 6." Ferrario, who did this oroject, weighs 210. He

says, "Hell, it's not even introductory." Quantities are relative toappetite and size.

(Slide) diapers feel soft as a summer wind, and whowould like to put a summer wind on their kid's bottom?

(Slide) Eggs are good for dogs. I conducted this session in Detroit- -

had a big fight between two women, one of whose veterinarian said, feedyour dog eggs because it gives luster and good for the coat and theother woman got up and said, no, it's very bad because it builds upthe cholesterol and it does things to the kidneys. We don't know it's

true. That are eggs for? In this ad, really. Eggs are good for the

people selling the eggs. That's reality.

A teacher told me about an ad, "That ain't good grammar." You tell

the children what a sentence is and it has got to have these parts andthis is how it works. They are seeing regularly on the tube, in maga-

zines and in the newspaper a different level of language. All I am

suggesting we do about it is tell them, not all sentences are alike.Saturday Review is full of but and which sentences and all kinds ofsentences in which things begin sentences which I was told never beginsentences with. So, it raises a question about what language is. What

with their own eyes and ears they can see and hear. 411 I am saying isletus tell them what language is in different places. In ads it works

like television--breezy, quick, punchy, very little evidence, very littlelogic, mostly distortion Playing upon human need. I suspect that ourchildren need this. I suspect we all need it.

(Slide) "Relieves pain faster--the plain aspirin with less chance of

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stomach upset." You all know the research that says aspirin is aspirinand that the secret ingredient in Anacin is caffeine. You all know thatcaffeine keeps you'awake; that is why you drink so much coffee. Youall know that it probably correlates with some disease. You make achoice. f am not trying to say we should go out and rub out advertisingagencies. I am saying we have got to be critical about all these in-tended messages because they are going to increase. 4e are living ina world where everybody is using communication to impose on everybodyelse a basic meaning. We ne.J'to arm against this invasion. It isquite a task.

(Slide) This is a funny one. You may have seen the !c ar nd forbuying bulbs or buying trees. Ferrario, the man who diu tnis n"ojectoriginally, is a gardener, a big fellow and a very warm human ..eing.This ad really turned him on because he sent for this and the tree was11 inches high and he was thinking of looking out the back window, youknow, beautiful thing with birds and it says in the instructions, "ifproperly cared for will obtain this height (8 ft.) in 30 years." Theyforgot to put it in the ad.

(Slide) There you go, you've got to break some eggs to make realmayonnaise. What's mayonnaise? Anybody, man or woman, of what ismayonnaise made? Oil and eggs. And what is the difference betweenreal mayonnaise and mayonnaise? Real mayonnaise has eggs. Isn't thatwonderful. Depends on how you say it. What is the evidence on

mayonnaise? Does it have any additives that aren't toouseful to the bloodstream?

(Slide) "Three hours and 30 minutes to make a new frock." I haveshown this to my classes. One of the teachers is a seamstress and shesaid, no, no. Three hours and 30 minutes to read the directions. It isnot a lie, because somewhere in America there is somebody who could putit together in three hours--just as in a speed reading course, somebodywho can read 2600 words a minute. The trouble is their nails are fall-ing out and they got the shakes--they can read 2600 words a minute butI say, keep them off my patio.

(Slide) "Average 50% off means, of course, that some of the bookshave almost nothing off, but that some of the other losers like Every-body's Guide to Looking for Insects in Southern Alabama, which was ahot seller for last year's Christmas, but is now marked down and sohere you have got 50% off. Not quite true. And everybody ought to knowa little about distributive means and it shouldn't be a graduate thing.Everybody needs to know it so they won't waste money buying falsebargains.

(Slide) When you buy a what you don't see is justas important as what you do, and I won't even comment on it. Now,ofcourse, what they do intend it to mean? That there are all kinds ofgoodies stuffed in the back. But, what's another truth? Do you knowanything specifically about the radiation of -- Is

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it one of those that if you have it too close to you, it is an aid tobirth control?

(Slide) is extra mild----it has 45% less tar thanthe best Felling filter cigarette, which may have enough tar to kill arhinoceros and this one is only 45%. Again the shaky standard.

r---But you don't need any more examples. They are everywhere aroOndN

you and your students. The world of ads is chock-full of meanings.Some true, some true in the mind but not the heart, some true in soundand rhythm but detrimental to heart, lungs and circulation, some out-right false or distorted or incomplete or misleading--ripe subject forteaching reading for meanings and feelings that matter.

n4,

WHAT IS POETRY? WHO CARES?

Sheron Dailey Pattison

Several years ago when I first came to Indiana State I had anoffice that was separated from another office by only a flimsy partition.The arrangement was perfect for socializing and eavesdropping, but lessthan perfect for working and privacy. My colleague over the partitionhad a five year old daughter who went to kindergarten at the Lab School.Her name was Christie. Everyday Christie would come to her father'soffice after school and wait for him. She had been admonished, "Do notdisturb Dr. Pattison:" It is difficult, however, when you have to passright by Or. Pattison's office; and when, in the noble tradition ofMilne's Tigger, you don't really walk--you bounce. And bounce she didwith bobbed hair flopping around her ears like ostrich feathers on aparasol, and with a smile so complete it startled her entire face.

So, most days Christie and I wound up chatting about the perils ofkindergarten. Then, summer came, then, first grade, new schedules, andI didn't see Christie for several weeks. One day I heard a quiet rus-tling next door -- the kind of rustling carefully designed so as not todisturb Dr. Pattison while at the same time insuring that she knowsyou're there. I said, "Christie, is that you?" A small voice replied,"Hello, flr. Pattison." Long silence. Then, "Dr. Pattison. Are youbusy?" "4o, not really." And with a bounce that could have propelledher nver the partition, Christie beamed through the door announcing withglee: "Guess what: I can read." "Well," I replied, "have you got abook with you?" Her whole body nodded. "Well, then," I continued,"let's hear you." And so she got her book, jumped into the chair, cle-gantly composed herself And gracefully began, "Run, Soot: Run. Run.Run. Look, Jane. See the dog." Her excitement was contagious. Herdelight, spellbinding. I was enchanted. I wanted to take her into myclasses and say, "See? That's how to read." But I was also saddened,for I realized that in just another year or two (or ten) all that delightwould turn to the drudgery of reading for exams, all that excitementwould be masked under n aura of "cool."

For such responses are exactly what I see at the beginning of eachsemester in my classes. Tne drudgery and boredom are most evident instudents' responses to poetry. A second grader illustrated this atti-tude precisely when he said, "Poetry is icky. I wish poetry was opt ofsight. I wish it were out of this world, or at least in Europe."

Author's note:

I wish to thank Millie Vaughn, candida,e for the degree of uoctor ofPhilosophy, for her stimulation and assi.,tance in the formulation of

ideas and values for this paper.3.5

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Eleanor Farjeon begins a famous poem with the line "What is Poetry? Whoknows?" Most of my students, however, would tend to reply, "What ispoetry? Who cares?"

This paper, consequently, will address itself to two major ques-tions: (1) What causes language and literature to move from a joy toa bore? (2) What can we do to arrest this change or to maintain theexcitement?

To return to the first question. What causes the change? I'd liketo provide a few examples of abuses of poetry calculated to maim. Forexample, I tic..ve a colleague who teaches fifth grade who uses poetrypunitively. If a student misbehaves, the student memorizes a poem aspunishment. She chooses difficult poems, also, e.g., "Thanatopsis,""Endymion," and 100 lines of Shakespeare. She thinks she is doing bothpoetry and the students a favor. Indeed, as a deterrent to crime,memorizing poetry is probably more successful than capital punishment,but poetry becomes synonymous with drudgery for about twenty-five morefifth graders every year.

Other teachers use poetry to drum into small heads "socieizingjingles," i.e., little rhymes whicn teach proper behavior. For ex-ample:

People will like you with much easeIf only you learn how to say "Please."

Another example:

Brush your teeth, everydayAnd all those cavities will go away.

Brush your teeth, up and downAnd you won't have to see the dentist frown.

gow, admittedly we live in a practical society. These uses of poetryhave their practical dimensions, but they irretrievably link poetry withdrudgery.

In recent years reading .scholars have begun to minimize the im-portance of reading groups. The decrease is fortunate; for they alsodo little to promote joy. A few years ago, however, reading groupswere omnipresent. Anyone over twenty will remember sitting in a readingcircle, taking turns. These of us who were quick demonstrated our skill

by reading as fast as possible,and we lay in wait like wolves ready topounce on anv halting or erring reader. Meanwhile,those of us who were slowtried to count ahead so that we could look over our passage in advance.But since the slower readers were often slower in math also, we nevercould keep up. By the time we had counted the readers and found ourplace in the book, someone else was reading. So we =carted over again.Remember? The closer our turn came, the greater the panic, so that when

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we were supposed to read, we hadn't practiced in advance and furthermorewe couldn't even find our place. Alas.

In either case, for both the quick and the slow, the reading groupoften fosters smugness and terror, not joy.

Some of these problems are disappearing. But one major attitudestill remains at the root of our problem at all educational levels.teachers still focus on reading (i.e., on language and literature) asan intellectual activity. We read to "Get the facts," consequently,the affective realm is often overlooked. Please dor', misunderstand,I am not saying, nor do I wish to imply, that teaching "Reading as aThinking Process" is easy or unimportant. I realize that for someteachers and students learning these cognitive skills is an exhaustingtask. However, as teachers of the language arts we must recognize thatthe question "What does it mean?" is only the beginning. Equally im-portant are questions of delight. How does it mean? Why does it mean?Dr. Huth mentioned this morning that he was preoccupied with the question"Why?"--with th.r, right side, the affective side, of the brain. I amurging similarly a balance as well as a relationship between theaffective and the cognitive.

One of the major poets of our century, W.H. Auden, was once askedwhy he was a poet. He replied that he liked to play around with words.But Mike, a third grader, put it more succinctly when he said, "I likethe way the words grind together." This is the delightful heart ofpoetry which children instinctively recognize in nursery rhymes.

Pease porridge hot,Pease porridge cold.

Pease porridge in the pot,Nine days old.

some like it hot,Some like it cold,Some like it in the pot,Vine days old.

A cognitive paraphrase wculd be, "Certain individuals prefer to eat theiroatmeal when its temperature is high, othe-s °refer a low temperature,whereas still others desire both a low temperature and staleness." 3However, the paraphrase certuinly isn't the poem. As tnis exampleindicates, nursery rhymes exist to delight. In spite of such books asThe Annotated Mother goose, they refuse to be intellectual.

A few year; ago a class was discussing iiaikJ poetry. The teacherread this Haiku:

Friend. That open mouthReveals your whole interior.Silly, nollow frog.4

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After reading the poem the teacher asked several questions. What is thetruth of the poem? 'thy does the poet choose a frog for the dominantimage? Why not a cricket? A penguin? Why does it begin with the word,"Friend?" Who is speaking? Is the sneaker a friend? What has happenedbefore the poem? The teacher them read and discussed several otherHaiku and ended with this one:

That snotty urchin, left unpickedBy either team.Ah, the bitter cold.5

After reading the Poem the teacher asked what "truth' it contained. Inan unguarded moment a boy blurted out, "Rejection." Immediately helooked embarrassed, for he had blown his cool.' When he looked up,however, he noticed that the entire class agreed with him. He asked,"Has everyone felt that way?" Tne class nodded sadly. He replied, "Ithought I was the only Person who ever felt rejected." Yes, everyonehas experienced rejection, but the poet can make us understand.

A favorite saying of children is:

Sticks and stonesCan break my bonesBut words can never hurt me.

Perhaps they say it so often because they know it is untrue. Words canwound us deeply. (Bill Hoth, you'll remember from this morning, stillcan't type:) What label injured you--or still does. retard, fatso,scarecrow, honky? Countee Cullen encaosulated this hurt in the poem"Incident":

Orce riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked outHis tongue, and called me "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimorefrom May until December;

Cf all the things that happened thereThat's all that 1 remember.6

Who is speaking/ Why? How old is the person? Hov. do we know? How dothey feel' Why? Why can they only remember being called a filthy name?

It is only when we allow a poem to coma at us w!th full intelluctual,

emotikoal, aesthetic, and kinesthetic forca that we preserve its value.

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Cognitive features are vital but only as a beginning. From this start-ing point we move to the "art" it "language art."

How to the second questiun: What can teachers do to reintroduceor to preserve the joy of language and literature. This morning Dr.Roth said, "How do we learn? I learn by having it happen to me . . .

by participation . . . by taking the new and relating it to the old."The answer is simple. get the children to participate--imaginativelyand/or literally--in the act of literature. The answer is simple, butits implementation is difficult. Let's look at this idea cf imaginativeand literal participation in some depth.

By the Phrase "imaginative Participation" I refer to the student'sability to project himself into literature that someone else is readingaloud. That "someone else" may be a parent, teacher, classmate, etc.A. Sterl Artley, past president of IRA, in an article entitled "OralReading as a Communication Process" provides an excellent example.

The story goes that a teacher was reading-telling the story of thethree little pigs to a group of young children. Apparently shewas giving a very dramatic rendition as she said, "The bad, oldfox crept up to the first little pig's house, and do you knowwhat he did? He huffed and he puffed (she illustrated) and heblew that little pig's house all to pieces." Whereupon she he4rdone little ragaaaiffin say disgustedly, "That droned old fox:"

Reading which stimulates the imagination is 'oral interpretation." It

demands above all precise, careful preparation. Artley also points out.

Seldom should a day pass, certainly not a week, without the teacheron any of the elementary levels doing interpretive reading inconnection with some event, project, or situation, if for noreason other than to provide an opportunity foe children to ex-perience good literature, well read.Obviously the teacher must prepare for this reading as meticulouslyas though he were preparing a presentation before a group of dis-cerning adults. 8

Winnifred Ward, founder of the creative dramatics and children'stheatre movements in the United States, made a similar point. Only thebest is good enough for children:"

The best" requires preparation, founded on a knowledge of threeprinciples or oral interoretation. (1) a genuine understanding ofliterature, (2) an enormous desire to communicate this understandingto someone else, (3) an appreciation of empatw, as a guide to audienceresponse. Richard Ammon, professor of language ar:.s and reading atPenn State says:

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Reading aloud with expression must be taught. Everyday there arenumerous opportunities for oral reading--both by the teacher andthe pupils. The teacher should read to her pupils every day, nomatter at what grade level. The teacher is the best reader in theroom; her reading should represent a model the children wish toemulate.

Most people seem to enjoy imaginative participation, but children- -especially children--want to participate literally as well. What canwe do?

First and most obviously, we can have students present oral inter-pretations to each other and to other classes. We can provide goodmodels for them to emulate and time to prepare. We can kindle a de-sire to communicate by asking questions and by leading children tounderstanding.

Secondly, group reading can be equally beneficial and perhaps moreuseful to the busy teacher concerned with stimulating 30 children atonce: My favorite introduction to group work is called "Follow theLeader," a game in which the leader says a phrase and the group imi-tates it as precisel' as possible. This exercise 'tunes tne ear' andgets children to li ten for mood, emotion, etc.,as expressed in pitch,quality, infl , rate, etc. Its also a pleasant exercise becausestudents can lead, and they can't be wrong: If, for example, a studentcan't think of anything to say and says, "Help:" or "I don't know:" Thegroup simply imitates that statement.

Once a class is "in tune" they are ready for choral reading. Again,prepare in advance. Don't expect either yourself or your students toge^ a creative idea on the spot. You may, but in my experiencecreative ideas are cantankerous devils. They are never there when youneed them, but always lolling around when you least expect them. Chooset poem for first attempts at choral reading that demands to be readaloud, not just any old poem--some would rather lie there on the page- -choose a poem that tends up and says, "Read me." I recommend "Galosnes"by Rhoda Bacmeister.lo Last summer a graduate student in the oral inter-pretation workshop had so much fun with "Galoshes" that she hoped itwould rain the first day of Fall classes so that she could introduce itto her third graders.

After work with basic choral reading patterns you can move intomore complex counterpoint such as "Hickory Dickory Dock"11 or "I'm No-,body" by Emily DickinsonI2 or "A Rhyme Is a Jump Rope" by Eve Merriam.13

Perhaps the students will enjoy creating ank, will wish to writetheir own Poems. Our foremost purpose, however, is to stimulate under-standing and communication. M. William Harp in an article in ElementaryEnglish urges:

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We must create an atmosphere that is conducive to children making

responses to poetry--only one of which will be "I want to writesome poetry.'

Above all, we want to get our students inside oletry. I believe it canmake a difference.

Meanwhile, I am waiting for the day whtn I can say to a class,"What is poetry? Who cares?" and be engulfed by a chorus shouting, "Wedo!"

NOTES

1M. William Harp, "Poetry in The Primary Grades," Elementary

English , 49 (December, 1972), 1172.

2Ibid.

3Fred H. Stocking, "English Teaching in an Age of Tecnnologv,"

Word ."turfy, 41 (February, 1966), 4.

4Japanese Haiku (flew York: The Peter Pauper Press, 1960), p. 33.

5Cherry Blossoms (New York: The Peter Pauper Press, 1960), p. 60.

6Otis J. Aggertt and Elbert R. Bowen, Communicative Reading, 3rd

ed. (flew York: The Macmillan Co., 1974),o. 123.

74. Sterl Artley, "Oral Reading as a Communicative Process,'

The Reading Teacher, 26 (October, 1972), Si.

&I bid.

9Richard Ammon, "Reading Aloud: For What Purpose?" The Reading

Teacher, 27 (January, 1974), 345.

10May Hill Arbuthnot, The Arbuthnoi. Anthology of Children's

Literature (Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman and Co., 1971) p. 167.

11Ethel 3. Bridge, hickory Dickory Dock: Prelude to Choral

, Speaking," Etemcntary Fnglish, 49 (December, 1972), 1169.

12Arbuthnot, o. 211.

13Eve'Eve lerriam, There Is No Rhyme for Silver (New York: Atheneum,1964), on. 54-55.

14Harp, p. 1176.

22

Sharon Dailey Pattison, Jessica Welchand Reece Chaney

Not only is there an art in knowing a thing.But also a certain art in teaching it.

Cicero

PRIVATE LOGIC IN CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOR AND THINKING

Reece Chaney

Parents and teachers have observed children's behavior, and intheir bewilderment scratched their head and asked, "Why in the worldwould a child do such a thing?" Most have observed children's behaviorand were confused by it because they could not see an apparent reasonto prompt a child to act as he did. Even though a child's behavior doesnot make sense and may be totally irrational from almost any perspective,it has meaning and puroose and is logical when considered within theconiext of.the child and his private logic.

If children's behavior is a mystery to parents and teachers, thenit is also an equally mysterious problem for children. Adylts expectchildren to know why they behave as they do and also to be able to con-trol their benavior in line with adults' expectations. What is actuallythe case is that children waually know little about the "why" of theirbehavior and could not possibly control themselves as adults seem tothink.

According to Dreikurs, Grunwald and Pepper Ibehavior is a result of

cognitive Processes, of idea. intentions, expectations, and rationali-zations. Much of what influxes behavior does not function at a con-scious state of awareness but rather is involved in an individual sys-tem -' hidden reasons and goals. "Private logic" reflects the logical

nature of one's behavior and also the lack of total awareness (uncon-sciousness) associated with it. A child's private logic, which isbasically unknown to him, controls his decisions and behavior. Accord-ing to Dreikurs and Cassell, these hidden reasons have developed as aresult of several factors which can be dnderstood based on the follow-ing five principles of human behavior:

1. Man is a social being and his main desire is to belong.This is true for adults and children alike.

Author's note.

Adlerian Psychology or Individual Psychology, founded by AlfredAdler, a Viennese psychiatrist, has added a unique contributionto the study of children's behavior. Dr. Rudolch Dreikurs, astudent of Adler, was primarily responsible for introducing manyof th Adlerian concepts in this country. The theoretical frame-work and conception for this paper rely heavily on the work ofboth these men.

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2. All behavior is purposive. One cannot understand behaviorof another person unless one knows to which goal it isdirected, and it is always directed toward finding one'splace. If a person or child misbehaves then it indicatesthat he has wrong ideas about how to be significant.

3. Man is a decision making organism. He decides whet hereally wants to do, often without being aware of it.

4. Man is a whole being who cannot be understood by some partialcharacteristics.

5. Man does not see reality as it is, but only as he perceivesit, and his perception may be mistaken or biased.2

A more detailed explanation of some of these basic premises isprovided below.

Man as a Social Being

Man is dependent upon hi: fellow men for love, growth and develop-ment. Within the context of social interEst, human 'oeings strive tobelong, to be a part, to be significant or an equal in the group

The child's initial experiences takes place in the family. It ishere that he first learns and experiences the realities of the group.From the first moments of life the child experiences his environmentand begins to formulate his own perceptions, conclusions and reactionsconcerning his place in the group. Dinkmeyer and Drelkurs were par-ticularly mindful of the family influence when they wrote:

Each child has an essentially different position in the familyand as a result perceives all family events uniquely. The child'splace among his siblings plays a significant part in the growthof his character. The competition between siblings leads tofundamental personality differences.3

From family experiences come the first ideas the child has regardinghimself in the world and ultimately how to cope w4th it. Interestinglyenough, it is at this time also, between ages 3 and 5, that A "lifestyle"--i.e., a characteristic outlook and response to life's tasks--isdeveloned. Future responses, the meeting of needs and one's attitudestoward life, are based on the "life style" of the individual.

Behavior is Purposive and Goal Directed

Children are generally not aware of the purpose of their behavior,but the goal, toward which the behavior is directed, is consistent withthe child's striving And life style. The .;oafs of misbehavior reflectthe child's private logic. His logic may have led him to the particu-lar goal being p.rsued and the particular methods and situations throughwhich he implements his plan.

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Misbehavior, the most noticeable form of goal-oriented behavior,represents the child's mistaken notions or mistakes regarding how tofind his place. Dreikurs and Soltzand Dreikurs, Grunwald and Pepper'observed the goals of misbehavior for children and reported them infour categories:

1. Attention getting2. Power3. Revenge4. Display of inadequacy

1. Attention-getting behavior. The child is after attention andobtains it by putting others in his service or behaving so that otherswill take note of him. An example of attention-getting behavior was seenin Jimmy, who was out of his seat when he was supposed to be completinghis assignment. The teacher reacted by telling him to return to hisseat and get to work--which he did for the moment. The teacher's re-sponse was one of annoyance; the child's goal was to get special noticefrom the teacher--which he did.

2. Power. When power is involved the child exerts his authorityby temper tantrums, refusals to cooperate, etc., and demonstrates thathe can be in control. The following illustrates a power struggle be-tween Jane and her mother.

Jane came into the house, picked up some candy and prepared to eatit when mother asked her to put it back since it was time for ginrer.Jane refused but mother persisted, took it away and left Jane screaming.Jane refused to come to the table and eat oinner with the family.

Mother by using force experienced Jane'. power. Mother's responsewas one of Laing defeated or threatened. Jane demonstrated that shecan in the end be just as powerful as her mother.

3. Revenge. A child that feels left out, alone, cheated or hurt,has a goalTriiating even. In the case of Jane above, her refusals toeat could be seen as revenge. Also, she might have broken the dishesor scattered the food or taken some other drastic measure. Mother'sreaction would have been one of feeling deeply hurt.

4. Inadequacy or assumed disability. Both of these are typicalresponses to discouragement, a feeling of failure and frustration. Thechild's goal is to be left alone and not bothered. The discouragedchild has not been successful in finding his place and ultimately givesup as in the case of Johnny.

Johnny sat quietly in the classroom doing whatever he desired.When the teacher approached him, he seemed not to near. Regardless ofher help or instructions, Johnny's behavior did not ct ..ge. The teacher'sreaction was one of helplessness and hopelessness. No matter what shetried, Johnny did not respond and eventually achieved his goal of beingleft alone.

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Man Can be Understood Only as a Whole. Being

All children's behavior can be understood best when considered aspart of a greater whole. All behavicr has significance and cannotreadily be understood in isolation or considered on the basis of in-dividual acts.

Adler was most aware of the "wholeness" of the personali'v woi itscontribution to understanding children's behavior:

,Perhaps the most remarkable fact of all is the way in whichone must unroll the whole scroll of the child's life in order tounderstand a single event. Every act seems to express the wholeof a child's life and,personality, and is thus unintelligiblewithout a knowledge of this invisible background.

The isolation and study of individual acts of children contribute littletoward meaningful understanding of behavior. This accounts for thedifficulty that teachers and parents experience when they attempt toexplain or understand when a child is engaged in undesirable or disrup-tive behavior.

Perceptions Are the Child's Reality

Objective reality has little meaning with children. A child'ssubjective reality provides the basis for reacting and for decisions.Children view their environments through glasses tinted with past ex-periences, private conclusions and subjective judgments. A child'sfeelings about his environment cr a particular situation provides thereal basis from which he forms a response and draws conclusions.

A conclusion often arrived a+ by a younger child is that the oldersibling has more privileges, is more in control of his bwn life andtreated with favor. In such cases the younger child treats his per-ceptions as fact and responds ti accordance with his feelings so as toachieve that which is rightfully his. Based on his conclusions, he mayrespond in any number ofytaYs including being difficult, demandingspecial consideration orb giving up.

In summary, the psychological premises of human behavior abovesuggest that all individuals wish to belong but do not always perceivethat they do or that they are treated fairly. Children's life experien-ces and their interpretation of them provide the basis for reacting andthinking. Behavior is purposive and consistent with the child's pri-vate conclusions and tonvictions.

The case of Jodi serves to illustrate one child's private logicand resulting mistaken goals which led to problem behavior. Jodi was7 years old and had two sisters ages 5 and 9. She was described by hermother as being a problem child. "She doesn't ever do what I want her

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to do," "She won't try at school and she doesn't do anything at home evenwhen I yell or punish," "She has an excuse for everything and she rarelycompletes a task."

Mothe'r related that she often became very upset and even ill due

to Jodi's behavior. In fact she had "given, up" because nothing worked.It was particularly difficult to keep Jodi healthy since she was suscep-tible to colds and never buttoned her coat even in the coldest weather.Each morning mother reminded her to button her coat--she never seemedto remember to do that herself. Nearly every evening mother complainedbecause the coat was open when Jodi returned from school.

The interview with mother revealed several observations. Even

though Jodi was an able child in many respects, she had not been ableto find a place in the family. Older sister was mother's favorite anddid everything right to mother's satisfaction. She was mother's little

helper. The apparent competition between Jodi and her older sister hadallowed her to accept an attitude of giving up, of being unable to com-pete and concluding that no matter what, she would not be good e ough.lased on these and other experiences she came to the.conviction at

the only way to be recognized was to be different. Jodi had beco e

very skilled at being the center of attention and keeping mother busywith her. "I am important and have a place when I am being notitedand have mother's attention" (even if mother is angry and her attentionis negative) are mistakes in Jodi's logic. She had made a common mis-take in choosing her goal to belong and to be a part. Her private

logic, reflecting her earlier experiences, resulting conclusions andmistakes in choosing ways to implement her plan, had led her to unde-\sirable behavior and problems in her family relationships.

Although mother did not understand the purpose of Jodi's behavior;\it was not difficult to identify when considered in the context of thewhole child. Jodi's unbuttoned coat got mother's attention most effec-tively. She had achieved her goal and in the process confused andannoyed her mother.

During the interview mother was assisted in understanding Jodi's

behavior and her private logic. Mother recounted a week later whattranspired between the two of them when she responded to the purpose(psychological significance) of the girl's behavior.

Jodi was ready to leave for school. Her coat was on but noticeably

open. "Jodi," mother asked, "did you want me to tell you what to doand remind you to button your coat before you go out?" Jodi looked at

mother with a slight grin which grew into a broad smile. She then be-

gan to laugh and finally "rolled on the floor." Mother reported that,

the buttoned coat was no longer a problem.

Mother's response to Jodi reflected the psychological significanceof this action and dealt with the purpose of the behavior which allowedJodi the opportunity to, be aware of her goals. Jodi quickly recognized

the purpose of her behavior, as evidenced by her smile and laugh. Both

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mother and Jodi were now aware and it was relatively easy for Jodi togive up her mistaken goal of finding her place or being significant byrefusing to button her coat.

This particular incident reflects only one facet of the problembetween Jodi and her mother. The problem will take morA time andunderstanding on the part of both, but the first seeps involved indealing with this difficulty have been taken successfully, as motherconfirmed.

Children do have awareness of their behavior at times although theymay not understand it totally. It is difficult to find a child whocannot answer when asked by a non-threatening. oerson, "How do you keepyour teacher (mother) busy?" Recently while talking with a fourth gradefriend about school and his dislike for much of it the above questionwas raised. Looking at his parents and smiling he whispered, "I'll tellyou tomorrow when mom and dad are not around." Later he related, "Whenthe teacher gives directions I don't listen." "And then you say youdon't understagNr ask questions so the teacher will come back withjust you." A smile followed by a "Yeah:" It was very easy to talkwhen mom and dad were not within hearing. Unfortunately, even thoughthis fourth ,grade boy knew what he was doing he was not about to helpout his concerned mother and frustrated teacher. His understandingwas not sufficient to allow him to change his behavior. Their responsesand pleadings had been futile because neither understood the purposes ofhis behavior and could not help him gain the insight needed to change.Besides, he was finding that it worked over and over again.

- I -t--is possible with patience and understanding to assist childrento understand their mistaken goals and to find more appropriate ways ofmeeting their needs if one understands the psychological significanceof the child's behavior.

Adults can be aware of the goals of children's behavior and can helpgain an understanding of their private logic. A compassionate and under-standing adult can be most helpful in assisting children to recognizetheir needs and goals. "Could it be that one way to get mother'sattention is to refuse to button your coat when she wants you to?""Could it be that you misbehave when you want the teacher or mother tooay special attention to you?" "Could it be that you don't pay attentionso the teacher will help you?" Such responses can aid children tounderstand the reasons they are behaving as they do. It was notedearlier that much of the reasons for a child's behavior is not withinthe awareness of the child--but can be,'with help. Children quicklyrecognize the purpose of their behavior when it is pointed out in anon-threatening and compassionate manner.

Children have an inherent desire to be a part and belong. Theirperceptions and resulting private logic sometimes impede their success,i.e., mistaken goals leading to inaporopriate behavior.. Misbehavior inchildren has only one different aspect from children who behave and that

29

is perceptions and resulting conclusions. For behaving as well as mis-behaving children the desire to belong is the same; the methods forachieving this and the mistakes arriving out of this striving becomethe basic difference between the two.

The child's behavior need not be a mystery to adult or child. Thekey to understanding liP° in the awareness of the psychological signif-icance of the child's behavior. The child's experiences, perceptions,conclusions and responses are reflected in his private logic and rep-resent the key to the child's behavior for those willing t- observeand seek out meanings.

NOTES

1R. Dreikurs, B.B. Greenwald, al4 F.C. Pepper, Maintaining Sanityin the Classroom (New York: Harper and Row, 1971).

2R. Dreikurs and P. Cassell, Discipline Without Tears (yaw York:

Hawthorne Books, 1974), pp. 8-9.

3D. Dinkmeyer and R. Dreikurs, Encouraging Children to Learn

(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963), p. 21.

4R. Dreikurs and V. Soltz, Children: The Challenge (New York:

Hawthorne Books, 1964).

5Dreikurs, Grunwald, and Pepper, op. alt.

6A .1 fred Adler, The Education of Children (Chicago: Henry Regnery

Co., 1530),p. 23.

3o

READINESS IS A THINKING PROCESS

Jessica Welch

In the life of Jonathan Livingston Seagull as he strove for excellencyin flyingpcame the excitement, "How much more there is to living! In-

stead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there'sa reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance; we can findourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill! We canbe free: We can learn to fly!"

Then be became outcast. "Jonathan Seagull spent the rest of hisdays alone, but he flew way out beyond the Far Cliffs. His one sorrowwas not solitude, it was that other gulls refused to believe the gloryof flight that awaited them; they refused to open their eyes and see.. . . For in spite of his lonely past, Jonathan Seagull was born to bean instructor, and his own way of demonstrating love was to give some-thing of the truth that he had seen to a gull who asked only a chance tosee truth for himself."I

As I view my life as a teacher, I hope to share my love with chil-dren--to shoW them they can "be free," that they can "flv," too. Alsnas I grow, I hope, with the guidance of my professors and persons whotouch my life, that I can show other teachers the "glory that awaitsthem" when they attempt to grow in love and understanding of the "free-dom to learn,"

In approaching my beginning years in public education it seemedthat the children always came with the question "Why?" or "Why not?"Like many beginning teachers I felt threatened, but as I looked at thechildren I realized that I was curious, too. Why not indeed! The yearsof teaching Headstart had led me to try to hear children's real fears,real hurts, not the surface behaviors. Why couldn't the same be trueof middle class children? Of cogrse it was Using the techniques ofWilliam Glasser` and Carl Rogers and with increased awareness ofPiagetian theories, I began to use a more humanistic style, with thequestioning that allowed freedom to answer. Any and all answers wereacceptable. From this simple beginning came deeper interest in taskanalysis. If a child can't complete a task, why not? Let's go backand review the steps. Let's see what's missing or where the lag comes.How does this child learn? Is he a "touchy-patty" child, more sensori-ally oriented? Or is he more attuned to the nuances of music, of voices,of moods by tone of voice? This self-questioning led me to want somedevice, some simple material to aid me in assessing the child's develop-mental skills. A casual observation by a friend led me to Mary Lorton'sbook, workjobs:4 This book gave accurate, direct instructions in con-struction of units of work, using a questioning technique as reinforce-

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ment. That really was the incentive for me--to see how one person coulddissect the curriculum and remake it to fit the needs of her children.In successive courses in the master's program at Butler University theidea of individualized instruction continued to stimulate and intrigue.For me this took the direction of attempting to set up a six to eightweek format of workjobs.

Using the criteria of Bloom's Taxonomy, 5the behavioral objectives

were set up that were necessary, using the curriculum required by thePerry Township School System. At the application level the set-up wasto use a "discovery" system as much as possible. Then began a three-month process of making and assembling the workjobs. Many were as perMary Lorton, but the stimulation of making them gave rise to highlyspontaneous ideas of my own. The process allowed me to be creative, toput more of myself into the curricula.

It soon became apparent that record keeping was going to be a majorproblem. To solve the growing problem of recording, three areas of in-formation were devised:

1. The overall scoring and recording2. The checking for accuracy3. The children's own record keeping

In overall scoring two bulletin boards were made containing all thechildren's names, but color-coded to identify the morning class from theafternoon class, The morning class had a blue board. The afternoonclass had a yellow board. It was decided to also give the classes filefolders to match the bulletin boards.

The volunteer mothers, who had expressed interest in helping, mettwo or three times to familiarize themselves with the coding and reord-ing systems. After priorities were established, the individual unitswere also color-coded and numbered, such as Sets 1-5, blue; Sets 1-10,green; Prereading, red. A skills sheet for recording was made and dupli-cated for each child. All samples of coded sheets were mounted on asupply chest to afford the mothers the support of the visible information.They set up their own schedules of work times and the dates were mountedon an open space in a four-place Learning Station. The children's fileswere also placed there.

In dialogue with mothers we discussed the questioning technique asa means of learning and evaluating oneself. We realized it also alloweda child to become less dependent and more self- directed.6 We arrivedat the understanding that each child could be more accurate if we lookedat the "surprise" boxes from their point of view - -again asking, "How doyou see this workjob?" "What do you think you have to do to solve it?"Many children from language-deficient environment need,the stimulus ofa question to set the thinking nrocess in motion.' The creative childusually ;hooses an area of work because he "sees it as potentially mean-ingful."0

32

After the children wa.e working well and as the level of difficultyincreased, we could see that a child was becoming frustrated. It was easyto say, "You're not very pleased with that work. Why don't you take an-other you like better?" This allowed a child a choice as well as success-ful accomplishment of a task. It also allowed mothers to see, via obser-vation, in what areas a child needed support or the return to simplertasks to develop competence, to avoid frustration which promotes behaviorproblems. ThE children's feelings of competence were furthered stimu-lated by signing "I did it!" cards that were enclosed in envelopes,color-coded to match the units, included with each workjob. It is atthis stage that the integration of the child's past successful experiencesand school achievements begins to allow them to set goals for themselves.9

Each child as he/she grew more capable could also personally referto the Master Chart for his/her class. Often a child would find his own"excitement" and do two or three workjobs in the open time slot. "Hisurge to learn sprang from within himself. "10

In doing some research on the validity of this effort, I found thatLannay in 1965 "in an investigation of the relationship between children's

Perceptions of themselves and the'r world while in kindergarten and theirsubsequent achievement in first grade found that these perceptions gaveas good a prediction of later reading achievement as intelligence scoresJ1It was in the area of synthesis that children were observed to move ahead.Several boys and two girls decided t "make up" songs to play on thepiano for the other children who col. n't read either numerals or letters.They put colored pieces of construction paper of their own choice on thepiano keys from middle "C" to an octave higher. Then they pasted onsheets of paper the colors to match the sequence of notes for the musicof a color-coded xylophone. Soon other children could "play" the songson the piano. A casual sorting unit of animals, among them a dinosaur,led one boy to look for books about dinosaurs in the school library; ledme to soure people for information about dinosaurs. Other children be-gan to br!ag in books and personal encyclopedias. Finally the youngboy began to paint, draw, model in clay. All the figures were accurateand he knew all the technicll terms for them.

BREAK TIME ACTIVITY

Problem solving techniques for puzzles.Groups of tive.One large envelope per group.Five single envelopes. One per person.Listen for directions.

CONCLUDING DIALOGUES BETWEEN CIASS MEMBERS AND ?

Louis Oaths identifies fourteen thinking operations in his book,Teaching for Thinking, butt he does not identify them in order tocriticize 41.2 curriculum.12 He does it to help the teacher develop hisown curriculum. He believes in involving the learner in the learning

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33

process. So do I. I believe a to her must also involve herself in the

curriculum. It should he a learne learner contract. The teacher must

be constantly aware of the differen es between a process and the product.

Processes in thought and problem-s ving should be more imnortant than

products. Many "clever" children cmn infer that a specific school work

of a specific pattern should have a specific answer. But if the prOcess

in the work is different each time, the child de'21ops a differing tech-

nique to arrive at completion. Differing crocesses allow a teacher to

make more valid evaluative tools in order to measure what she wishes a

child to know. Very personally, I believe each classroom should reflectan atmosphere of love and respect for each other as human beings. As

the teacher loves and respects each of the children, so too, do the child-

ren love and respect one another. I feel that the future of education can

only become fully open as the Person is open. Greater exnectations of

successful students can only happen when the atmosphere of the class-room is one of trust and confidence in the child to accomplish what is

his unique ability. In order to have a firm awareness of growth, I feelconstant self-evaluation should be taken, with occasional evaluativedialogue by other teachers or persons who are as accepting of us as we

try to be of the children.

I would like to close with a line from Carl Rogers, "I fall far_short of achieving these elements, but to find myself moving in theseairections makes life a warm, exciting, upsetting, troubling, satisfying,enriching and, above all, a worthwhile venture. "Ii

NOTES

1 Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (New York:Avon, 1970).

2William Glasser, Schools Without Failure (New York: Harper and

Row, 1969).

3Carl R. Rogers, Freedom to Learn (Columbus, Ohio: Chas. E. MerrillPublishing Co., 1969).

4Mary Lorton, Workjobs (Racine, Wis.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.,

1972).

5Benjamin Bloom et al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, HandbookI, Cognitive Domain (New York: David McKay, 1956).

6Morris Sanders, Classroom Questions: what Kinds? (New York: Harper

and Row, 1966).

7William Fowler, "The Effect of Early Stimulus in the Emergence of

Cognitive Processes," in Early Education, ed. Robert Ness and Roberta

myer Bear (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1968).

34\

8Thomas French, The Integration of Behavior, 3 vols. (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1952-1956).

9Charlotte Buhler and Fred assarik, The Course of Human Life: A

Study of Goals in the Humanistic Perspective (New York: SoringersPublishing Co., 1968).

10Evelyn Pitcher, Miriam Lasher, Sylvia Fineburg, and Nancy C. Hammond,

Helping Young Children Learn (Columbus, Ohio: Chas, E. Merrill PublishingCo., 1956).

11William W. Purkey, Self-Concept and School Achievement (Englewood

Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970).

12Louis Raths, Teaching for Thinking (Columbus, Ohio: Chas E. MerrillPublishing Co., 1967).

13Rogers, op.cit.

Robert Pabst, Richard Biberstine and Geneva Ross

We must believe the things we teach our children.

Woodrow Wilson

THE THINK-TANK OF READING, OR IS THE BARREL FULL?

Robert L. Pabst

When I was a youngster, the kids in my neighborhood played a gamecalled "Your Tarn in the Barrel." Exactly why one took his turn in thebarrel was never quite clear because the rules of the game were neverquite clear; but when it was your turn in the barrel, you were the tar-get for the dirt clods, mud balls, the late October hard green tomatoesthat never quite ripened, or apples which the other contestants hurledfrom an outer ring some twenty or thirty feet from the barrel. No oneever threw rocks because he knew only too well that his turn in thebarrel might be next. The object while you were in the barrel was tododge as many of the missiles fired your way while still standing, usingthe barrel only as an occasional shield.

From an historical perspective, several experts in the game of read-ing have taken their "turn in the barrel," contributing to the think-tankof reading.

Among the earliest writers to step foot in the barrel was JohannHeinrich Pestalozzi who, in looking upon reading as a synthesis of lettersinto a spoken word, advocated the A3C method, still used in some of ourmodern schools desoite the fact that as far back as 1838 Horace Manndenounced the method and took his turn in the barrel as a consequence.

Mann concluded that, as a result of the use of Pestalozzi's method,"more than eleven-twelfths of all the children in the reading classes inour schools do not understand the meaning of the words they read."1 He

concluded that pupils do not make sense out of their reading, and thatthe author's intent and feelings are never conveyed to the reader.

Rudolf Flesch joined Pestalozzi in the barrel in 1955 when he definedreading as "getting meaning from certain combinations of letters. Teachthe child what each letter stands for} and he can read."

G. Stanley Hall jumped in to take his turn in the barrel in 1886with his synthetic and analytic methods of teaching reading.

J ning Inn, already in the barrel, Hall favored beginning witholeloordsbu was quick to state that there were differences in opinionOattice as to t:e most practical of ways. And, like Mann, he viewedTii as "though'Aetting."4

)(long came Edmund B. Huey in 1913 to join mann and Hall in the barrel,but he went beyond their pronouncements when he wrote, "atil the insidiousthought of reading as word-pronouncing is well worked out of our heads, it

36

is well to place the emphasis strongly where it really belongs, on read-ing as thought - getting, independently of expression." The students'speed in reading, he believed, and his thinking would grow with maturationand the reader's oower to assimilate what is read in silent readingpractice for meaning.

Around the turn of the century, several champions of the,word-whole method and the phrase method led to defining reading "aS a proceisof recognizing printed words by units of recognition or by phrases."6 411DThe barrel for this approach was crowded with Erdmann, Dodge, and Judd,and 8uswell, plus others, who may have done some damage to Huey's ideato read for meaning by,the emphatis they gave to reading as a matter ofspan of recognition, of fixations and pauses, the number of fixations oneach line, regressive eye movements, and accurate return sweeps. Inother words, reading was concerned mainly with mechanics, or as Hueyaptly put it, "an old curiosity shop of absurd practices."7

Standing in the barrel from about 1879 until the late 1940's wereoculists, reading specialists, inventors, and researchers working on themeasurement and evaluation of eye movements in reading. These studieseventually led to the invention and development of the metronoscope, thetachistoscope, and reading films for the improvement of skills for poorreaders.

Miles A Tinker, who has engaged in extensive eye-movement researchat the University of Minnesota, has come to the conclusion that the speedwith which the eyes move is of less importance to productive reading thanthe mental activity that takes place in the fixation pauses. Tinkerfurther advocates that the emphasis in reading should be upon efficientrather than upon rapid reading. The versatile reader is one who "changeshis pace to fit the requirements of the material and his Purpose."3

Even nationally prominent organizations have danced the "Hokey Pokey"by putting both feet in and both feet out, then one foot in and one footout, and finally putting their whole "bod" in and shaking it all aboutas they've taken alternate stances in the barrel. The National Societyfor the Study of Education in 1925 pronounced three aims in reading: "tomasts the mechanics of reading, to develop habits of good oral reading,and ti stimulate keen interest in, and appreciation of, good literature."9

William S. Gray in 1936, in writing for the Thirty-Sixth Yearbook ofthe Society, presented a new definition of reading: "The reader notonly recognizes the essential facts or ideas presented, but also reflectson their significance, evaluates them critically, discovers relationshipbetween them, and clarifies his understanding of the ideas ar renended."i9Gray continued:

The Yearbook Committee believes that any conception of readingthat fails to include reflection, critical evaluation, and theclarification of meaning is inadequate. . . . This implies thatreading includes much that psychologists and educators havecommonly called thinking. . . .Since efficient readers do think

f 37

about what they read while they are reading it, the teacher shouldprovide needed stimulus and guidance both in sewing ideas fromthe page and in dealing reflectively with themil

Arthur I. Gates took a turn in the barrel in 1949, presenting a newaccount of the reading process. Wrote Gates,

Reading is not a simple mechanical skill; nor is it a narrowscholastic tool. Properly cultivated it is essentially athoughtful process. However, to say that reading it a"thought-getting" process is to give it too restricted adescription. It should be developed as a complex organizationof patterns of higher mental processes. It can and shouldembrace,all types of thinking, evaluating, judging, imagining,reasoning, and problem solving. Indeed, it is believed thatreading is one of the best media for cgltivating manytechniques of thinking and imagining. LL

Gates goes on to say that the reader gains more than understandingand contemplation, that he becomes stirred by emotion, he modifies hisattitudes and purposes. "Indeed, his innermost being is involved."ii

Ernest Horn's book on methods of instruction in the social studiesreflects much of this same approach. Reading, says Horn, "includesthose processes that are involved in approaching, perfecting, and main-taining meaning through the use of the printed page."14 Horn furtherrecognizes the varieties and gradations of reading and of purposes forreading, methods for achieving understanding, and organizing knowledgein order to be functional. But it is in the symbolic character oflanguage that Horn extends beyond the definitions of those previouslyin the barrel when he states:

The author, moreover, does not really convey ideas to thereader; he merely stimulates him to construct them out ofhis own experience., . .Any error, bias, or inadequacy inthe author's statement is almost cert;in to be reflectedin -the ideas formed by thefiTadetpf.10

Here r am reminded 9f a story which so aptly illustrates the pointHorn makes. It seems a rancher from Wyoming, visiting in Ireland, wasriding along a country road, when he spotted a farmer toiling in hisfield. Stopping, he walked over to the fence-row beside the road andasked, "What do you grow in your garden?"

Replied the Irishman, "Well, sir, over in that corner I plantedpotatoes, and over there a bit of alfalfa for me horse, and here somesod to repair me cottage, and the rest I put in vegetables for me table."

"Why, you haven't even a half acre of land," said the rancher.

38

"Aye, but 'tis all the good Lord provided, and I'll make do,"answered the farmer.

"Back in Wyoming," boasted the cowboy, "I've got a farm so big thatI can get up early in the morning, get on my horse and ride off in anydirection and never come to the edge of my land by sundown."

The Irish farmer calmly replied, "Sure, and I had a horse like thatonce."

The significant point here is that teachers cannot assign studentsa story or require them to read on in the text to answer specific ques-tions and expect learning to take place. Students either parrot backthe exact phraseology of the text or slightly disguise the paraphrase,but the student's attitude is more mechanical than thoughtful. Probablythe best situation to foster a search for meaning is to urge studentsto reflect and act upon their own questions. Pre-reading, sessions lendan aura of the give and take of ideas, of experiences, and of knowledge,

resulting in questions that require the student to order and reorder andretest his own ideas as he later reads.

Mortimer Adler's turn in the barrel gave us the idea that the sameskills used in discovering are used in reading: keenness of observation,good memory, abundant imagination, and reason that helps us analyze andreflect. Adler believes that insofar as reading is learning, reading isalso thinking. Although the line is hazy, he distinguishes between twotypes of reading: the kind thr.t is immediately and readily intelligibleto us, such as reading newspapers or magazines, and the second kindwhich is not completely or immediately understandable. States Adler:

I am not pretending that the job is an easy one. I amonly insisting that it is not an impossible one. If itwere, no one could read a book to gain in understanding.The fact that a book can give you new insights or enlightenyou indicates that I probably contains woros you may notreadily understand.10

t

If Adler leaves the impression that he overestimates the value ofderiving tne meaning of a word from other words and underestimates thevalue of experience, he lays it to rest when he writer,:

What is crucially important...is the basic proposition:All human knowledge arises from the operation of thesense, and most human knowledge goes beyond sense; i.e.,has a reflective development.17

In reading as a thinking process, the reader manipulates ideas todiscover logical relations, or he rearranges logical patterns so thathe can reach a conclusion. But first he must have a purpose--questionsthat need answering. Self-declared purposes serve as directive influencesand motivators. To the degree that they are promoted by the facts athand and the reader's motives, attitudes, and experiences, they are trust-

4

39

worthy.18 They make the reader a student of what he is reading ratherthan a servant to recitation, as in the case where the teacher givesassigned purposes and ready-made but artificial questions. Havingacquired the ability to declare his own purposes, the student developsopen-mindedness, responsibility, alertness, flexibility, and curiosity,and it is these purposes that "make the difference between an ablereader and an intellectual bungler. "'1

In his turn in the barrel, Thorndike indicated that reading isreasoning or a balance between what the reader finds as he proceeds andhis purposes, experiences, and knowledge. He concluded that

Understanding a paragraph is like solving a problem inmathematics. It consists in selecting the right ele-ments of the situation and putting them together in theright relations, and also with the right amount ofweight or influence or force for each The mind isassailed, as it were, by, every word in the paragraph.It must select, repress, soften, emphasize, correlate,and organize, all under the influtnce df the rightmental set or purpose or demand.4u

In addition to purposes and reasoning being placed in the barrelmaking judgments is also an essential process. Whatever purposes areto be achieved prepare the way for making judgments in reading, and thepurposes determine the kind of judgments to be made.

"The judgment might be a straightforward Yes or No, an estimate, ora decision that is specified only partially and involves evaluatingalternative solutions."41

In arriving at judgments, facts must be select and weighed anddecisions made that are pertinent and discriminate.44

Judgments range in complexity from the simple recognition of factto the doubtful, when the different aspects or points at issue are notdistinctive, when there is controversy in alternate claims, when thereis a question about how the claims are to be interpreted or appraised.

Fundamental then to the reading-to-learn process are these threeaspects of the reading- thinking process. declaring purposes, reasoning,and judging. But refining and extending ideas is also essential. "Re-search on concept formation indicates that many people are reluctant todiscriminate between the particular qualities of a concept or to sortand assimi14te the qualities so that a standard of reference can beobtained.""

Good teaching of reading becomes outstanding instruction at thispoint and makes of the good reader a superior and mature reader.

40-ra

William S. dray and Bernice Rogers indicate that the mature readerpossesses

(1)° unique characteristics...that predispose him toreading; (2) a focus...of interest...which serves asan inner drive or motivating force; (3) awareness ofhimself as a responsible group member...; (4) an everexpanding spiral of interest; (5) a high level'ofcompetence in reading, which enables him to proceedwith reasonable ease and understanding in graspingand interpreting meanings, in reacting rationally tothe ideas apprehended; and in applying his ideas withsound judgment and discrimination. 44

Now is reading maturity acquired? Gray and Rogers found, inanalyses of their cases, that home background was a contributing factor,but "the aTount of schooling was more closely related to competence inreading." 40.

The crucial point on this road to maturity was the point at whichreading ceased to be "a mere intellectual exercise of grasping and re-membering meanings...it is the point at which reading begins to bringabout significant conversions, to make changes in one's core of values,to broaden interests, to open up new horizons, and to provide new andimprov d way of thinking about things.the process has. become self-generat ng."46 Gray and Rogers add that "while little can be done tochange he reader's capacity to learn to read, much can be done tostimulat and direct reading activities in, order to insure maximumprogress °41

With this background of what has been provided by the think-tankof the reding experts of past and present, we can turn to the morepractical aspects, of teaching reading as a thinking process.

It i recommended by most advocates who have taken a turn in thebarrel that teachers plan in advance to organize the class into differenttypes of groups to provide equal learning opportunities for all students.Systematic, inforial observations of pupils' reading behaviors is a must.A reader cannot be taught how to think when confronted with material sodifficult he has to finger point eachrword or give up in despair. Like-wise, advanced, mature readers need their potential challenged withinteresting materials.

In setting up the different kinds of groupings in class, the teachermust ask whether concept formation can occur based on the experientialbackground of the students. In other words, how, full is the barrel inthe commodity of the group's 'referents"? Whenever our family of tentakes the 250-mile trip to Wisconsin, invariably the little ones askas soon as we reach the first town, "Are we there yet?" Certainly thechild who has seen the distance on a road map as only a few inchesconceptualizes the distance as being very short.

41

Secondly, what kind of language development is evident in dealingeffectively with ideas? Students usually have little trouble namingand understanding familiar concrete objects, but when it comes toverbalizing an abstraction, they run into difficulty; yet by and largeit is with abstractions, mostly verbal, that we think. Good teachersuse concrete referents to teach students how to abstract and generalize.

Certain words lend clues to their meanings from the language it-self, especially connecting words like and, but, or, for, although,since, and so on, and these are taught in their language settings.

Specific terms that refer to number, time, or distance are easilyinterpreted by readers who have developed concepts of quantity, size,or space; but all of us may have difficulty interpreting indefiniteterms like almost, few, accasional, and frequently. For example, ifNelson Rockefeller is said to have only a few dollars with him, howmuch does he have in comparison with the few dollars you have with you?

Children need to be made aware of the shifts in meanings of words'also. The New American Standard Dictionary lists over 200 meanings forthe word run, for example.

A

The way language is structured and organized can improve compre-hension. An appositive in a sentence, the classification type of clue("They drank whiskey, gin, and other spirits"), and the index type ofclue ("The immigrants were the Italians, the Poles, the Irish, and theGermans from Europe") may all enhance understanding. Other types ofcontext clues are included in master teachers' strategies to developthinking.

Until a child understands the total structure of language--grammar,syntax, and logic--he will have difficulty with comprehension. Re-

lationships between phrases, between clauses, modifiers, and othersentence elements are essential to understanding and to logical think-ing. Punctuation, too, may be regarded as the highway signs on theroad to thinking through reading.

Emmet A. Betts points out that "master teachers have learned thatthe best motivation for reading is the pupil's inner drive to learn--his questions and other expressions of purpose."48 It is preciselythis motivation that teachers spend the major portion of their teachingtime stimulating, and how they do it is important. In directed readingactivities, teachers need to plan their strategy to develop interest,word skills, and thinking abilities--"the guided reading of the story."49

For individualized reading activities, students need to be providedwith assorted books commensurate with their independent reading levelsand with books which simultaneously arouse their interests and developtheir skills or present new learnings. It is not enough to teach pupilsto do literal, reading, "what the author wrote"; students need learn todo critical thinking, to reflect on what the author wrote.

,42

In prepari the pupils for reading a selection in a storybook, for a study book activity, or for pursuing a majorinterest in some curriculum area, master teachers guidethem into thinking about "what we know" and "what we wantto know." The first step assesses their interests, atti-tudes, and concepts which they take to the activity. Thesecond step heightens interest and establishes clear-cutpurposes to guide their thinking. In short, the teacheruses sound tactics for starting the pupils clbthe road to

icritical thinkng, to tre considered evaluati n of ideasand concepts.i

Once the student has his own purpose and has developed his own,

questions, he is prepared to find ;Ind weigh the value of the informationhe seeks, and he even evaluates tho date the material was written andattempts to find out what he can about the reputation of the author.

With practice students can learn the difference between fact andopinion. "When pupils learn to discriminate between facts and opinions,they tend to do less arguing and more discussing. Equally important,"

"says Betts, they ace better prepared to select information relevantto their purposes."

Since facts are verifiable and opinions are not, students need tolearn to analyze what the writer said, whether the statement is factor opinion, whether the student's question was, answered, whether thestatement is usable, and whether there are additional aids included foranswering questions the student has.

Essential to developing thinking ability is the ability to judgethe relevance of statements.

First, the pupil evaluates relevance of sub-points to eachother and to the main points in an outline....Second, heevaluates relevance in visualizing both stories and in-formation: sequences of important events in a story, orexperiment, organization of material on maps, charts, slides,etc. Third, he uses relevant facts in solving a mystery,in using the results of an experiment, in making socialjudgments, etc. That is, straight thinking is required fordrawing conclusions frem related facts or from cause-Affect r(lationships.-14

The ee kliphaiis in schools today is to teach children how to think.It can be done if theiripersonal experiences can be broadened, and ifthey use their experiences to solve problems, draw conclusions, judge,develop concepts, and engage in abstracting and generalizing from factand opinion. But there are hr more children who have mastered phonicsthan there are children who have learned to think, and the sad thing isthat in either case they are crippled readers or cannot read at all.

43

A final word should be said about personality traits of effectiveteaCners, another ingredient that needs to go into the barrel. Recently

at the twentieth annual meeting of the International Reading Association,Dr. Delwyn G. Schubert, on the rsis of studies showing personalitytraits of effective teachers, r commended that teachers of reading beemployed who enjoy a high degr e of good mental health as evidenced bytheir ability to

be constructive and encouraging in their comments and notresort to threats, be conversational and friendly ratherthan tense and stern, cultivate a voice that is originaland intriguing rather than prosaic and colorless, possessa tense of humor and not be too serious' and too occupied tohave fun, be enthusiastic about pupils and teaching, beaware of children's needs, and be a participant in children'Sactivities rather than always assuming the role of director. 33

As teachers, we need to concern ourselves with a genuine analysis.of what schools are for and how children learn to think. Vincent R.Rogers states,

We have been'guilty of ignoring some of the most fundamentalinsights about how children learn and grow--such obviousand basic notions as the importance of concrete experiencein the learning of young children, the significance of a

positive self-image or self-concept for all children, theessential wholeness or unity of the learning act, the effectsof failure and humiliation on children, the importance ofthe notion that children learn best when they are interestedin what they are learning. If physicians were to ignoreideas as germinal to their work as these are to ours, lifeexpectancy in the United States would be more like forty thanseventy.34

Whether the barrel is full is a moot point. Suffice it to say thatthe barrel has been crowded with ideas on approaches to the teaching ofreading. Insofar at learning to think is concerned, my turn in thebarrel is devoted to the idea that I cannot separate any languageactivity from thinking since speaking, listening, writing, and readingare all involved with thinking. Besides, with the barrel already socrammed, and with a review of the ideas in it, who wants to get in thebarrel next? Not I. I've reviewed the development of the ideas thathave gone before and have judged their merits and concluded that thebarrel is full enough.

t ry

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NOTES

1Horace Mann, Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Boardof Education, 1838, in Life and Works of Horace Mann, vol. II (New York:LOthrop, Lee, and Shepard, 1891).

-nuaolf Flesch, Why Johnny Can't Read and What You Can Do About It(New York: Harper and Row, 1955), p. 8.

3G. Stanley Hall, H'w to Teach Reading, and What To Pad in School

(Boston: Heath, 1880,

4Edmune, Burke Huey, The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading (NewYork: Mumilla5, 1913),p. 350.

5Ibid., p. 359.

8Russell G. Stauffer, Teaching Reading as a Thinking Process(New York: Harper and Rots, 1969) p. 6.

7Huey, loc. cit.

8Miles A Tinker Teaching Elementary Reading (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1952), Po. 15-16.

9Wllliam S :Ley, me Nature and'Types of Reading," The Teaching ofReading: A Second Report, Thirty-sixth Yearbook of the National Societyfor the Study of Education, Part I (Bloomington, Illinois: Public SchoolPublishing Co., 1937), p. 26.

1°Zbid.

11/bid.

12Arthur I. Gates, "Character and Purposes of the Yearbook," Reading,in the Elementary School, Forty-eighth Yearbook of the National Societyfor the Study of Education, Part II (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1949), p. 3.'

13rbid.,4.

14Ernest V. Horn, Methods of Instruction in the Social Studies (NewYork: Scribner's, 1937), p. 152.

15Ibid., p. 154.

18Mortimer J. Adler, Row to Read a Book (New York: Simon and Schuster,1940), D. 202.

17Mortimer J. Adler, What Man Ras Made of Man (New York: Ungar,1937), p. 9.

45

18Stauffer, op. oit., p. 12.

19Ibid., p. 13.,

20EdwardL. Thorndike, "Reading as Reasoning: A Study of Mistakes

in Paragraph Reading," Journal of Edwational Psychology,, 8 (June, 1917),. 329.

21Stauffer, op. oit.

2 2Ibid. ,

23Ibid.

24William S. Gray and Bernice Rogers, Maturity in Reading(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), pp. 236-37.

25Stauffer, op. oit.. p. 14.

26Grayand Rogers, op. oit., p. 237.

27Stauffer, op. oit., p. 15.

29Emmet A. Betts, "Reading is Thinking,"'The Reading TeacherFebruary, 1959, pp. 146-151 cited in Improving Reading in Middle

Teacher,

Secondary Schools, Selected Readings, by Lawrence E. Hanfer (New York,Macmillan, 1974), pp. 52-58.

29/bid.

39.1ba

91Ibid.

32Thid.

99PatricIA McCormack, "Teacher Personality Affects Reading,"Indianapolis Stae, June 2, 1975, p. 9.

34Vincent R. Rogers, "Open Education: Where It Is Now; Where Is ItHeading?" Music Educators Journal 60 (April, 1974), 8.

THINKING SKILLS AND READING

Richard.D. Biberstine

We are living in a world of rapid change and it seems to be chang-ing at an ever increasing rate. The rapidity of change can be seen inthe great inventions and scientific discoveries that have come intoexistence during the present generation. One person suggested that onecould see this phenomenon better if we would compress all human exis-tence into a fifty-year period. In this compressed time line we couldseethe following:

Man stopped being a cave man only 10 years ago.Five years ago man invented pictorial writing.Two years ago'we entered into the Christian era.Fifteen months ago the printing press was invented.Ten days ago man discovered electricity.Yesterday morning, in this compression, the first--airplane flew.

Last night the radio was invented.At six o'clock this morning television was invented.Less than 15 minutes ago the first commercial jetliner-made its first flight.

One might choose to.diiagree with the time line presented here, butthere is little argument with the fact that our world is changing fast.A few years ago a high school chemistry teacher told a class, of whichI was a member, that there were 92 elements. That bit of wisdom is nolonger' accepted as a valid assumption.

The rapidity of change in our world precludes the possibility ofproviding our pupils with an adequate supply of facts to face theirfuture. The occupations of some children in the elementary school to-day have not been discovered at this time. Since this is true it isimportant for the schools of our society to concentrate on the develop-ment of competencies that will be useful regardless of the scientific,technical, social, economic, or political changes that may be forth-coming.

In every society there is a need for abilities in such areas aseffective communication, calculation, reading, and thinking. Thisconference is emphasizing the need for reading-thinking skills.

There are some who choose to separate reading from thinking andplace them in two different areas. However, for reading to have mean-ing, and for reading to bring about understanding, it must be accompaniedby an active interaction between the two interrelated skill areas.

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One author seems to question this interrelatedness as he writes:

If the reader can translate print into speech--read italoud as sentences with normal intonation pattern--and stillfails to grasp the idea or relate facts or infer or drawconclusions, then he has no reading problem; he has a think-ing problem, traceable to many possible sources, none ofthem concerning printed words.'

There are others who seem to limit the process of reading to anarrow definition which includes only decoding skills. Rudolph Fleschseparates reading from understanding in the following paragraph:

Many years ago, when I was about 15, I took a semester'scourse in Czech. I have forgotten everything about the langu-age itself, but I still remembered how the letters are pro-nounced, plus the simple rules that all words have the accenton the first syllable. Armed with this knowledge, I oncesurprised a native of Prague by reading aloud from a Czechnewspaper. "Oh, you know Czech?" he asked. "No, I don'tunderstand a word of it. I can only read it."2

If reading were merely the pronunciation of words without under-standing then one could easily go one step farther and divorce readingfrom thinking. We do not choose to suggest such a separation.

To think of reading as a thinking process is not a newor novel idea.

As early as 1838, Horace Mann complained that a largepercentage of children in reading classes did not understandthe meaning of the words which they read. He went on to saythat... they do not master the sense of the reading lessonsand that the ideas and feelings intended by the author to beconveyed to, and excited in, the reader's mind, still restin the author's intention, never having yet reached theplace of their destination.3

Others have recognized the close relationship between reading andthinking and have referred to the reading process as a "thought-getting"process, "reasoning," and other words clearly establishing this connec-tion. Others who have contributed to this idea are Edward L.,Thorndike,William S. Gray, Arthur I. Gates, and many others.

After a teacher has recognized tne connection between reading andthinking, it then becomes his task to model that type of behavior withhis students. If children learn to do what he does, then opportunitiesshould be provided to use reading-thinking activities in the classroom.

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The authors of Teaching for Thinking have listed a number of think-ing activities which serve as the outline for our remarks. They wrote:

. . It is suggested here that the elementaryteacher develop classroom activities for his studentswhich involve the operations of observing, comparing,classifying, hypothesizing, looking for assumptions,criticising, imagining, collecting and organising data,coding, problem solving, decision- making, summarizing,and interpreting. If children are given daily, someopportunities to compare, criticize, to decide, etc.,they will be acquiring experience in thinking whichwill help them mature.'

Some of the thinking operations mentioned above will be used asthe major areas of our concern today.

Problem-Solving.

'Mother we choose to label it as the "steps of problem-solving" orthe "scientific method" the steps are very similar. They are asfollows:

I. A clear statement of the problem..2. Gathering of data related to the problem. ,

3. Hypothesizing possible solutions.4. Testing the hypothesis.S. Evaluating the results.

The solution of a problem often rests in the person's clear-cutperception of what the problem really is. The child who is givenopportunity to explore problem areas that he chooses to investigatewill learn to use more effectively this reading-thinking activity whichwill have meaningful application regardless of how the world changes.

A number of years ago while teaching in the upper grades of an ele-tf. ntary schocl, I was invited to an informational meeting of the localchapter o' the American Cancer Society. The group consisted of upperelementary science teachers in the county. The meeting was to dissemi-nate information related to the connection of cigarette smokinq to theincreased incidence of lung cancer. After an evor4.7..0 of speaKers andslides each of us was presented with a packet of materials, and ad-monished to .ust present the factual information and let the stue,-:draw their owt conclusions. One speaker said, "Do not tell them ..7re.'they should not smoke or make statements that cast reflection upontheir parents or relatives." With this challenge, I went back to myclassr cn trying to think of a way to get the students involved in thisproject. The factual information was presented and the students didget invo!ved in some interesting discussions. As a culminating activitythe students were asked to bring in as many full-page colored cigaretteadvertisements as they could find in the popular magazines available tothem.

49

In a short time there was a classroom of committees analyzing theseadvertisements. They were looking for factual information and the typeof appeal that the advertisement presented. Each committee had one ormore brands to investigate. They very quickly came to the conclusionthat statements such as "soothing to the T-Zone" contained no factualinformation that had any real, meaning.

From there they went to the types of appeals presented. Beloware just a few of their findings:

T. The boy and girl walking by the rippling brook was anappeal to a person's desire to be liked by the oppositesex. (Salem)

2. The athletes and mountain climbers smoking this parti-cular brand was an appeal to their desire to be a real man.(Camel)

3. Some were identified as an appeal to one's desire forluxury. (Imperial)

A

4,, "The man who thinks for himself smokes Viceroy," was anappeal to the persoh's intellect or desire for individuality.

Many other appeals were identified and interest was greater than Ihad anticipated. It was a thrill to watch active groups carrying ontheir investigation. The level of involvement and the products of theirreading-thinking activity was most gratifying.

Children can carry on investigations at a surprising level ofeffectiveness if the motivation stems from the problem itself.

Observing, Comparing, Classifying.

Very often children fail to perceive items of interest in the thingsthey see or read because they have not had their curiosity stimulated.A question, an observation, or a casual statement can cause cognitivedissonance which requires closure. Questions calling for comparisons,contrasts, or classification can cause some reading-thinking activitythat otherwise may be lacking.

Sharing one's observations in a :lass discussion makes childrenrealize that other children have different perceptions from the sameor similar experiences. This gives them the opportunity to comparetheir observation and thus broaden their focus on the things availableto any of the senses.

Matt and Chester were white rats provided by the American DairyCouncil. They were fed controlled diets prescribed in both amount andcontent. The only variable was that Matt received milk in his diet. My

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students were to observe the differences that came in this four-weekexperiment. The rats were watched, weighed, and observations were care-fully recorded. The children felt their teacher was allowing them tohave fun, but they also learned to be more precise in their observations.

Even in readiness programs children Are asked to observe likenessesand differences which lead into comparisons and classification. On onepage from a readiness workbook entitled "Which Ones Belong Together?"-the children are expected to observe, compare, and classify the pictureditems on the basis of common characteristics. This type of readinessmaterial can be more than visual discrimination for it can lead intoother comparison activities.

In the same readiness materials, there is a page entitled "WhichOne Is Really Larger?" This page has pairs of objects that are picturedapproximitely the same size. As the child observes these objects hemust reflect upon the objects and make a judgment about the size of thereal thing represented by the pictures. This brings abstraction intothe thought process, for the child is expected to compare the size ofthe objects pictured based upon his past experience.

A third page of this readiness workbook is for the development ofauditory discrimination. The child is asked to circle the objectspictured that have the same beginning sound as the picture on the leftof the line. The child is expected to recognize beginning consonantsounds and compare them with pictures representing objects that start"with the same sound. Although this material does require some thinkingon the part of the child, it also points out the necessity for theteacher to find and follow the thought process of the child.

While checking this page the teacher noticed that Bobby had markedall three possible choices as having the same starting sound. As teach-ers are occasionally obliged to do, this teacher placed a check markedon one 'item deemed to be incorrect. Bobby, being a bright and brazen"brat" challenged the teacher's marking. The teacher pointel out thatthe picture on the left of the line was a "mail box." She proceeded toinform him that the three pictures were "nurse," "monkey," and "mittens'Bobby replied, "But I marked it for mother." Then the teacher recalledthe fact that Bobby's mother was a nurse. Bobby's answer did not followthe standard pattern but he was correct on the basis of his thoughtprocesses. This illustrates a very important point--that a teacher try-ing to develop thinking should also follow the logic of the child beforerejecting an answer.

Collecting, and Organizing Information

All too often teachers expect the child to memorize pre-packagedparcels of information. Some teachers feel they are helping the childto accumulate the things they need to know. The paradox is that thechile needs to know the "packaging procedure." Rarely can life's needs

r;

51-

be met by memorized information. Ready-made answers are rarely adequatebut the thought processes required,to gain answers are needed in everyculture at every age in life.

Whether it be a class project, a repbrt or material for a classdebate on a current and controversial issue, it should be a real in-quiry worthy of the child's endeavor.

An elementary teacher in a class called "vocational guidance" wasfar ahead of his time in many ways. One of these ways was his manner ofgiving assignments that required thinking on the, part of his sixthgrade students. On one occasion he assigned each member of his classto choose a trade or profession that he would like to know more about.They were to read about his profession and then on their own select aperson in that profession from the'community and make arrangements foran interview. The arrangements were made,',and the reading was done.Finally the day arrived and a boy from a home of modest means made hisway to a large mansion at the end of the street where a successfullawyer lived. Wearing his blue denims and with a list of questions ona scrap of paper he passed the large Lincoln automobile in the drivewayand rang the bell. With very few memories of what was in the report hegave to that sixth grade class he holds many memories from this per-sonally profitable experience. He found that that lawyer had come froma homeof modest means and worked for goals that he had set for him-self as a young man. After this interview he was less impressed withthe wealth and success of this lawyer and more impressed with the warmhuman qualities he found behind that mansion door. The assignment wasto collect and organize information for a sixth grade report. Theconcomitant learning included more than that sixth grade teacher couldhave ever imagined at the time, for the sixth grader was encouragedto read and think and evaluate ideas that changed his life.

In ,a recent issue of The Reading Teacher, Russell Stauffer and MaxHarrell5 suggested that teachers initiate a time of reading that wouldprovide individual "self-regulated inquiry type reading." This is inaddition to the group instruction. They write as follows:

. . . anyof the essential reading-thinking skills of thescholar can be more efficiently taught inn group situation.If we are, however, to develop independent learners who areorderly and thorough in their methods of study, we must allowstudents opportunities for self-regulated inquiry type reading.

This "self-regulated inquiry type reading" should start early inthe child's education, even in the primary grades. The reading programswould have from three to six weeks of consecutive reading-thinkingactivity in which students would select topics, set goals, collect andorganize information, make decisions and share results. The timesuggested was three consecutive weeks for primary grades and five tosix consecutive weeks for intermediate. Between these individualized

52

sessions of inquiry were two or three weeks of skill refinement in group,directed reading-thinking activities.

Stauffer and Harrell conclude their article by stating:

Excellence in scholarship requires educational proceduresfounded on an honesty in communication and instructional

practices differentiated according to en individual's rate oflearning, his interests, his capacity and his maturity. Nothingless than goals, hypotheses, and inquiries of a young student'sown efforts will serve as the most honest forum for that student'seducational program. The eclecticism of the individualized read-ing-thinking session seems uniquely suited for such a task.

Decision-Making

Whatever the society of tomorrow may be it will involve decision-making. The child who is trained in a sterile atmosphere of a class-room where all decisions are made by an authority figure will find verylittle to help him cope with the future. In fact, this type of anatmosphere would prove to be detrimental. If one is trained to acceptblindly the pie- packaged decisions of an authority figure it couldcontribute to the lack of responsible decision-making that permitted theexcesses of Nazi Germany, the tragedy of Watergate, and the continuationof "handed-down" prejudices for generations.

The price of accepting information without a reading-thinking ex-amination of the evidence includes the susceptibility to propaganda ofall kinds, the gullibility to all financial schemes that confront us andthe abdication of our responsibility iethe Dolling place.

Many persons run into serious problems due to inability to makewise decisions based on personally examined facts.

The teacher who gives a child a massive dosage of facts has notprovided him immunity from anything, but one who has been trained toskillfully search for and thoughtfully act upon the best available in-formation has been given an effective instrument to meet the challengesof the unknown of his future.

Conclusion

Time would not permit the coverage of even the list of operationslisted in the quotation at the beginning of this paper. The teacher ofreading has a never-ending task of confronting the .-Ald with both oraland printed materials that stimulate thought. As th child is encour-aged to interact with ideas, he can be assisted in developing ways ofcollecting and using new information. This interaction with ideas,whether it be called problem-solving, inquiry, decision-making or someother appropriate label is an arena where the child develops his abilityto think about the ideas encountered. If this ability is not applied tothe reading process then reading becomes a thoughtless conversion of

53

symbols to sound. If we are not willing to accept this narrow defini-tion in relation to the end product of reading, we cannot accept itin relation to the process. Theodore Clymer states: "A teacher'sdefinition of reading influences every action he takes in the classroom."

NOTES

1James Moffet, A Student-Centered Language Arts Curriculum, X-13:A Handbook for Teachers (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968), p, 16.

2Rudolf Flesch, Ally Johnny Can't Read,paperback ed. (New York:Harper and Row, Publishers, 1966),p. 27.

3Russell G. Stauffer, Directing the Reading Process (New York:

Harper and Row,"Publishers, 1975), p. 7.

4Louis E. Baths, Selma Wasserman, Arthur Jonas, and Arnold

Rothstein, Teaching for Thinking: Theory and Application (Columbus,Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1967), p. 34.

5Russell G. Stauffer and Max M. Harrell, "Individualized Reading-Thinking Activities," The Heading Teacher 28 (May, 1975), 765-69.

Ga;

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO READING IMPROVEMET (SARI)

Geneva A. Ross

During the latter part of the 1960'S, and the 1970's the educational

literature has made,many references to individualized instruction, in-dividualization of instruction, and individually guided education (IGE).Many persons have been involved in projects, many of them financed throughfederal funds, which have been attempting tp develop systems for pro-viding teachers with ways to manage the instructional program to meetthe educational needs of each individual within the classroom, and manyschools have been implementing pro rams which are aimed at managing theinstructional program of the entir school enrollment.

Several publishing companies h ve developed systems for organizinginstruction which have been referred\to as "management systems." Mostof these programs contain criterion-referenced tests and worksheets orskill-cards for the use of teachers and students in the individualiza-tion of instruction.

The "SystemaMc Approach to Reading Improvement" (SARI) was devel-oped by teachers is five school districts in northern California througha federally-funded project at the Northern California Program Develop-ment Center. Phi Delta Kappa became interested in SARI through itsefforts to .identify and disseminate innovative pmgrams and is disseminat-ing it as a way to make it known tireddcators who may want to use it asa system or to use it in any way it may meet their needs.

, SARI was developed under the premise that if teachers are to beeffective in teaching children how to read they must decide:

1. Exactly what they want children to learn.2. Who already knows it.3. How they can teach it to those who dontt know it.4. How to determine when students have learned it.,

SARI is a sequential step-by-step reading skills system which isbased upon performance objectives and criterion-referenced tests. Thesystem has five purposes:

1. 'To define and list identified reading skills that,by agreement, are essential for competence in reading.

2. To assess individual pupil's skill development progress_by means of criterion-referenced tests related to eachskill.

3. To provide a management system to guide sgpuping for andplanning of skill development instruction.\

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4. -To monitor, each pupil's progress in the developmentof specific skills.

5.. To identify methods/media appropriate to each readingskill in the system.

The reading system is divided into four reading strands or mainareas: Vocabulary, Word Analysis, Comprehension, and Oral Reading. It

contains a minimum collection of reading skills written in measurableterms as 95 performance objectives. It is not to be considered as atotal reading program.

Each of the objectives has been identified as a critical readingskill related to a specific achievement level. There Are thirteenachievement levels ranging from the pre-reading or readiness levelthrough the eighth-reader level.

The SARI Blueprint shows how the system works. The teacheradministers the Placement Test to determine each student's startingpoint. The student takes the pre-test for the performance objectivedetermined as his starting point. If the student passes the pre-test,the teacher and student record the results on the student's TrackingCard, thetJass Profile. Chart, and the student's Bubble Chart. Then thestudent moves ahead to the next pre-test and the next skill activities.

If the student doesn't pass the post-test,he continues other ac-tivities in this skill area until he has mastered the skill. Then hetakes the post-test again and, if he passes it this time, he and theteacher record the results on the four items mentioned above, and thestudent moves ahead to the next pre-test and the next skill activities.

One of the strong points of SARI is that it provides for parentinvolvement. A booklet entitled Parent Information Booklet was pre-pared to help parents understand SARI's basic features, so they canobserve and encourage the progress of their children. The parentbooklet contains the'95 performance objectives which are writtei in avocabulary which is easily understood by most parents. The reportingslip mentioned above is given to the child to deliver to the parentfollowing the satisfactory completion of each reading objective. Theslip gives the number of the reading objective which has been completedand the date of its completion. Parents are encouraged to follow andrecord their child's progress. Through communicaticn with the teacher,parents may also be kept informed as to which performance objective thechild is working on so that they too can assist the child with thespecific skill.

Another very important component of the SARI system is theTeachers' Resource File. This resource file is of utmost importance ina school's management system because it assists the teachers in:

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I. Organizing what they already have which is usuallymore important than providing additional materials.

2. Providing a system of organizing teaching'materialsand procedures.

3. Making teaching materials readily available to allteachers for instruction of students at all levels.

4. Permitting 'teachers to pool their efforts in asystematic way.'

The SARI system provides the statement of the 95 performance ob-jectives for inclusiOn as labels for the Specific Objectives Foldersand directions for setting up the resource file. It, also, providespre-tests and post-tests for each of the performance objectives exceptthose for oral reading. The manual includes copies of a worksheet andan activity sheet for each of the performance objectives except fororal reading. The activity sheets give directions for the making ofgames and manipulative devices for,reinforcement which will aid inhelping the student to master the Specific skill. Since the SARI ma-terials are not copyrighted, it is suggested that these sheets be dupli-

, cated-forirclusitm-tn-the-Speciftc-lbjective Folders.

In addition to the above-mentioned items which are components ofthe SARI system, the Specific Objective Folders should contain all otheravailable materials such as manipulative reading aids, games, activitysheets, fun sheets, teacher-made worksheets, worksheets from workbooks,novel activities and lists of commercial and teacher-made games whichare too bulky to include in the folders. Each teacher in the schoolcontributes samples of his or her teaching materials for inclusion inth resource file. This file serves as a great resource of to .hingma.erials to the upper elementary teacher who may have student ,,ho are

nctioning at a much lower achievement level than the grade to whichthey are assigned: It enables the teacher to supply the needed in-istructional materials without having to prepare materials for children

,/ who may be working at theee or more years below their assigned grade/ level. On the other hand the teacher who has students working at a

more advanced achievement level than that, to which they are assignedmay find materials to use with these students without preparing themand without asking teachers who are working with students who areachieving et more advanced levels. It is as great a resource toteachers who have students working at the expected level because they,too, may find a collection of additional materials and ideas which willenable them to prepare a greater variety of activities than if theywere limited to their own files of materials and ideas.

As stated earlier, SARI isn't a total reading system. Instead, itserves as a management system to aid teachers in managing the instruction

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of students In the mastery of the essential reading skills and in pro-viding teachers with a reading resource file. This file makes avail-able a wide variety of materials to be utilized by the students inassisting thin to master specific needed skills which have been de-termined through criterion-referenced testing. SARI may be utilizedwith any of the various approaches to reading instruction, and it maybe used with any reading system or program.

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LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT: CONTRIBUTIONSTO THE READING PROCESS

Eldonna L. Evertts

You and I %eve been looking at neatly plowed fields, contoured farm-ing landscapes, or snow piled in drifts along fence rows for many yearsand we know very well what each of these looks like. But Jules Voyt,a Swiss photographer with creative insight, took an aerial view of thesesere fields and recorded on film the delicate portraits of the country-side created by light and shadows to form intricate tapestri=es. Newsnow nestling at the bottom of a furrow formed an image of contrasts ingeometric patterns. The result is a form of art, quite different thanour own mundane. earthy impressions.

At times we becOme very earth-bound working day after day on the'same reading concepts while progress seems slow. But perhaps we couldfollow Jules Yoyt's example and take an aerial view of the reading actan4 see if we might not find a beautiful and attractive tapestry we

_mac er saw before. _Perhaps as we work the_ angle of the sun and the in-tensity of its rays will help us create a new work of art--a new way tothink about reading and the process of reading.

The basis for learning to read that must be du/eloped by the indi-vidual child is composed of many furrows--many separate lessons in,wordrecognition, word analysis, comprehension skills, and in sentence patterns.However, not one of these is high-lighted in the final tapestry. Ideallyeach of these necessary skills should become subordinate to the joy andfun of reading on one's own initiative with a concomitant feeling ofpersonal satisfaction.

Reading is not unilateral; it does not operate apart from materialto be read, time for the act, a person who can read, and the desire toread by that individual. Reading implies there is something to read andsomeone who wants to read. The process of reading utilizes a knowledgeof language, an understanding of life, previous experiences in reading,and patterns for personal thinking. The individual brings all of thesequalities with him as he picks up the daily paper or a new novel to read.

Reading must be regarded as a thinking process. Merely saying alouda series of words found on a printed page does not qualify as reading.Word recognition or word Calling is not really reading; it does not ful-fill the function of reading. One mast be able to recognize the graphicsymbols and translate these into language either orally or mentally whileat the same time associating meaning with the words. Unless meaningcan be associated with words, these words are a blank--a "non-concept."For example, before Helen Keller understood the symbolic nature of

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language during that dramatic moment at the well when the water rushingover one hand was equated with the spelling of w-a-t-e-r by her teacheron her other hand, she was able to reproduce the spelling for d-o-1-1but she never associated the symbolic spelling pattern with her owndoll so all she had was a game to play. Thus the thought process, theability to symbolize, is vital to the reading process.

An understanding of the symbolic nature of language on the part ofthe individual pupil is prerequisite to the reading process itself. Whena child first begins to use language during his first years of life,he is taking a significant step toward reading. In a sense, learningto use and understand language is not a pre-reading activity but a partof the reading process itself. The child's language comes with him ashe walks up to his teacher--be it grandmother, an older sister, or schoolteacher--and wants'to be shown how to read the storybook he.is holdingin his hand. The center of the entire process cf reading is language.

The wise teacher will accept the child's own language as the be-ginning point for planning instruction in reading. This can be followedby experiences or teaching-learning activities to extend, broaden, andenlarge his command of language. This means that if the child's firstlanguage is different from that of the language of instruction, the childshould be taughtto _read ia_his_first languAge_or given .the opportunityto learn the language of classroom instruction before beginning actualreading instruction.

Reading is not a singular skill but a process based upon many ofthe sub-systems of language and, therefore, the ability to understandand use language is of prime importance. Understanding language shouldrot be interpreted to mean that children need a course in linguisticsbefore beginning to read. But it does mean that if teachers and othereducators seek the advantage of an aerial view of reading, the sub-sys-tem of language contributing to the composition of the reading designmust be explored.

There are a number of sub-systems of language each of which hasits own unique input into the reading process. But for the moment, letus look at phonology, morphology, and syntax.

Because writing it secondary, being based upon the oral language,we need to begin with the sounds used in speaking the English language.No language uses all the sounds that the human mechanism can produce;each language is selective of the phonemes it utilizes. English utilizesabout 4E (with some variations in snecific dialects) distinct Soundssignaling units which can be arranged into patterns to form meaningfulunits of speech. These may be classified as nine vowels, three semi-vowels, twenty-one consonants, four degrees of pitch, four degrees ofloudness, and four kinds of juncture.l Therefore, in English, we areconcerned with only 45 phonemes and the graphic representations of thesesounds -- letters or combinations of letters, space between symbols, or

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punctuation marks. It should be remembered that we do not have a com-plete system of graphic symbols to give clues for stress, pitch, orjuncture as heard in the oral language. But the reader who is fluentin the oral use of language can use these features to give meaning tohis oral reading. Linguists have designed symbols to show these in-tonational features of language in their transcription6 of orallanguage and these have a scholarly use but are not fIu.:d in everydayreading materials.

The sounds of phonemes of English are classified-as vowels or con-' sonants depending upon how the sound is produced. You cannot write the

consonants on paper and neither can you see them because consonants aresounds. The vowels are not a, e, i., o or u because, again, vowels aresounds and these are Utters. The letters used in print merely representor stand for the sounds we hear or use when talking. Spelling patternsare arbitrary and not pronunciation guides, although the sequence ofletters may be clues as to what can be expected.

Certainly pupils need r good background 0 phonology when learningto read. They must be able to recognize the letter symbols and the nameassociated with that symbol as well as the spelling patterns associatedwith the various vowel and consonant sounds. To give the child no helpin phonology is to have a disabled reader; to give him help in only thissub-system of language is to give him a handicap. Each child needs tohave several ways in which to unlock words.

Through an understanding of morphology the pupil is able to takethe basic building blocks of language as identified in phonology and toconstruct words. He understands how words con be formed Oy using a baseplus prefixes and suffixes. An understandin4 of the history of theEnglish language and from which country varidus morphologgal formsoriginated can often explain obstacles to spelling expectations.

In this sub-system of language, morphologY,, pupils learn that smallchanges in the appearance of a given word can mean a great difference

in meaning and in the interpretation of that unit of language.

The walk wascovered with leaves.

There are several walks through the park.He walked along the street.His walking shoes formed a blister.The baby played in his walker.

There is a tremendou economy for learning and teaching time whenpupils perceive how words are constructed through affixation. In

addition to inflectional and derivational affixes nmpils can findexamples of compounds, onomatopoetic construction, clipping (frig orrefrigerator), blends (motor and hotel motel), and acronyms (NASA).English is a living language and, as such, new constructions of words

are constantly appearing with new inventions, new exploration, or newdiscoveries.

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English is a syntactical language, that is, meaning is dependentupnn the sequence of words that are strung together. Meaning is notin a given word but is determined by the position or slot that wordoccupies; An example frequently used to illustrate this point is "Thedog bit the boy" and "The boy bit the dog." In these two examples themeaning resides neither in the words "boy" or "dog" but in the positionor slot that word fills telling the native speaker of English which isthe Ictor and which is the receiver. (If English were an inflectionallanguage, an ending could be tacked on a word to indicate subject orobject.)

Syntax, one of the sub-systems of language, utilizes a set ofsentence patterns to illustrate the basic forms which can be used tocreate or to analyze sentences. One common pattern is the NUN, as in"Birds fly home." But more than a single word can fill a slot so com-pounds can be used as can phrases or clauses. The change from activeto passive or the use of the question form "Do" or "Did" involvesspecific obligatory changes which are syntactical in nature. The ex-pansion of fillers for the slots may have the same basic meaning, per-mitting the writer of that sentence to make some substitutions forvariety of emphasis within a total composition. For example, thesubject slot in "They went swimming" could be filled by "The boys" or"Jim and Dean" and the sentence would have the same basic meaning.

Although we want our pupils to use, read, and write elaboratedsentences, the aim is not superficial brillance. It is true that theability to extend sentences and thereby achieve greater length is asign of maturity but mere length alone does not produce a qualitysentence. One way to become familiar not only with elaborated sentencesbut with much variation of syntax or structure is through the study ofliterature. The syntactical sentence patterns in written prose are muchtighter,condensed,and contain more embedded structures than those found inoral conversations. For example, parenthetical explanations are usedinfrequently in oral communication but can be used ef7ectively inwritten form. The careful editing of a written composition makes itpossible for the author to produce sentences containing a variety ofsubordinate constructions.

Unless pupils understand. the many variations in sentence patternsthrough much listening to good literature read well orally by teachers,parents, or others, they will be unable to bring full comprehensive orthoughtful response to these syntactical patterns when they are en-countered in reading. Recent research by Carol Chomsky, Frank O'Hare,and others points to the values of listening to variations in languagepatterns and in writing these patterns.

Meaning or thoughtful evaluation of what is read is not found with-in the word itself, the sentence, or even the paragraph. Sometimes oneneeds to read the entire selection before discovering the full signifi-cance of a bit of writing or that the author was writing with tonguein cheek. This illustrates two other sub-systems of language that

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correlate closely to reading: semantics and rhetoric. Semantics in-cludes not only the meaning of a word at a given moment but the histori-cal development of wo. meaning, the changes of meaning from place toplace, and all the act..ities and understandings resulting from a studyof dictionaries and their constructions. Older pupils are curious aboutwords and can comprehend much about the historical development ofEnglish, and especially the changes in language in America accompanyingthe westward movement and the rise of regional, social, and educationaldialects.

Semantics is one approach to gaining a fuller meaning of the wordsfound 7n a selection while rhetoric aids in understanding the entireselection. When an author writes a selection he has several choices o?format according to the ideas he wishes to communicate. A recognitionof these formats or literary forms can help a pupil anticipate the typeof material he will be reading. The pupil's thoughtful response and'xpectations will vary as he begins to read a folk tale, legend, fable,adventure story, biography, science fiction story or essay. Likewisean understanding of the format or structure of a limerick, haiku, ballad,written play, or song brings fuller appreciation and meaning to thereading process.

After an author makes the choice of the rhetorical or literaryform he wishes to use, he can select other devices to convey his ideas.He might use similes, metaphors, personifications, or hyperboles. Again,after listening to much oral reading by adults from the world of children'sliterature, children can gain an understanding of these features oflanguage through discussion of stories or through creative drama basedupon these selections.

The reader engages in many kinds of reading. musical scores, recipes,mathematical formulae, geometrical symbols, road signs, illustrations,diagrams, sketches, as well as letters printed on paper with ink. Thusa study of vaphics becomes part of knowing how to read. The clues ona printed page for the intonational features of stress, pitch, or junc-ture are limited but all availale evidence should be noted. such aspunctuation marks, size of print, italics, underlining, or spacing forinterpretaJon.

Learning to read is an on-going process throughout life. As wegain great insights in the many sub-systems of language we increaseour competence for reading and our performance in reading. Mot only asteachers must we gain an aerial vision of the reading process but wemust also help our pupils to rise above each furrow they had to turn at

one stage in their development of reading comoetence and to gain an ex-alted sense of the joy and appreciation which comes from a real experiencewith literature. Both teachers and pupils can gain from an aerial viewof the reading process.

1Donald J. Lloyd and Harry R. Warf61, American English in itsCultural Setting, 1975, p. 60.

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